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Presented   by    \   X~'(2y5\C\(2/Y~\'V   \  c7\-V\-p'r\ 

BS  651  .K56  1893 
KIPP,  P.  E.  1847-1900. 
IS  Moses  scientific'? 


Is  Moses  Scientific? 


First  Chapter  of  Genesis  Tested  by  Latest  Discoveries 
of  Science 


REV.   p.   E.   KIPP  XO  /p 


"Thy  word  is  true  from  the  beginning  "Ps.  iig;  160. 
''Let  all  the  nations  be  Rathered  together,  and  let  the  people 
be  assembled;  who  among  them  can  declare  this,  and  shew  us 
former  things?  let  them  bring  forth  their  witnesses,  that  they 
may  be  justified;  or  let  them  hear,  and  say — It  is  truth"     Is.  43:9 


New  York        Chicago        Toronto 

Fleming  H.    Revell  Company 

Publishers  0/  Evangelical  Literature, 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Conress,  in  the  year  1893,  by 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Company,  in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of 
Congress,   at  Washington. 


TO  MY  FATHER 


PREFACE. 

The  apology  tor  this  book  is  the  crisis  of  the 
times.  The  Old  Testament,  and  especially  the 
Pentateuch,  is  now  receiving  the  brunt  of  battle, 
which  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  was  waged  against 
the  New  Testament.  There  seems  to  be  such 
confusion  and  smoke,  that  the  common  people 
begin  to  fear  there  mast  be  more  mistakes  in 
the  Bible,  than  it  is  to  the  interest  of  Christian 
scholars  to  let  them  know.  If  so  much  is  told 
out  loud,  how  much  more  must  be  concealed? 
If  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  are  unau- 
thentic and  unhistorical,  the  foundations  of  their 
faith  seem  slipping  away,  and  they  are  left  in 
bewilderment  to  know  whether  anything  can  be 
firmly  believed. 

The  age  is  passing  through  a  peaceful  revolu- 
tion; old  methods  of  living,  traveling,  working, 
thinking,  believing  are  undergoing  change. 

If  we  could  read  the  history  of  our  own  times, 
as  it  shall  be  written  fifty  years  hence,  we  could 
not  believe  that  we  had  been  on  the  stage  when 
such  great  revolutions  were  in  progress. 

In  the    religious  world,    as  elsewhere,    it   is   a 


8  PREFACE 

time  of  crisis;  old  faiths  need  to  be  restated; 
old  truths  need  to  be  set  in  new  relations;  old 
theology  needs  to  be  rearranged  around  new 
centers.  The  greatest  care  should  be  exercised, 
lest  in  proving  all  things,  we  should  not  hold  fast 
that  which  is  good.  Re-adjustment  does  not 
mean  relaxation;  restatement  does  not  mean 
rejection.  If  on  the  one  hand,  we  find  that 
our  old  diamonds  need  new  setting,  let  us  be 
careful  that  we  shall  not  have  the  setting,  with- 
out the  diamonds.  And  if  on  the  other  hand, 
the  old  tree  is  sloughing  off  the  effete  bark,  it  is 
because  it  is  so  healthy  and  vigorous,  but  let  us 
not  clutch  after  the  cast  off  wood,  and  despise 
the  new  growth. 

The  people  need  to  be  assured  that  there  is  no 
more  danger  to  the  old  Book  than  there  is  danger 
to  the  tree,  when  Spring  splits  off  the  old  bark. 
The  old  truths  are  not  going  to  be  given  up  for 
they  are  embedded  in  the  life  of  the  world;  like 
the  granite  rocks,  they  underlie  all  our  beautiful 
civilization  which  grows  above  them. 

But  at  just  this  time,  when  doubts  are  raised 
and  controversies  fill  the  air  to  suffocation,  it 
was  thought  opportune  to  look  at  the  bul- 
warks which  have  been  thought  most  easily 
assailed. 


PREFACE  9 

The  Pentateuch  is  most  violently  attacked, 
but  if  any  part  is  exposed  to  the  hard  facts  of 
rigorous  science,  it  is  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 
There,  if  anywhere  a  deadly  battle  can  be 
fought;  there,  if  anywhere  science  is  sure  of  its 
ground  and  can  make  a  strong  attack. 

Much  that  is  put  forth  as  historical  criticism 
is  mere  speculation.  Much  of  Vv^hat  is  hurled 
against  the  Pentateuch  are  missiles  that  are 
forged  out  of  fancy  and  imagination.  The  mist 
in  which  the  long  distant  past  is  enveloped;  the 
clouds  which  obscure  most  of  what  we  call 
earliest  history,  have  been  rolled  up  into  airy 
cannon-balls  and  hurled  against  the  beetling 
rocks  of  the  Bible. 

But  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  this  is  not 
so;  here  positive  science  comes  to  the  front; 
here  she  stands  on  rock  and  speaks  of  what  she 
knows.  On  somethings  in  that  chapter,  science 
can  speak  with  as  much  assurance  as  can  revela- 
tion. If  there  be  a  conflict  here,  it  will  not  be 
conducted  with  missiles  of  mist,  but  with  the  cold 
steel  of  well  tempered  facts.  So  that  if  anything 
be  the  matter  with  the  Bible,  here  is  the  place 
to  find  out.  Science  has  picks  and  bars  with 
which  she  can  lay  bare  the  foundations  of 
Scripture  to  show  us   upon   what   it  is  founded. 


10  FREFACt 

The  excuse  for  this  book  is,  therefore,  the  need 
of  the  times.  The  attempt  has  been  made  to  bring 
cut  the  whole  truth  of  this  chapter  of  Genesis  and 
the  whole  truth  of  science  upon  the  same  sub- 
jects, and  place  thern  side  by  side.  If  Scripture 
be  true,  it  must  be  willing  to  be  tried  by  the 
most  rigorous  tests,  wherever  such  tests  can  be 
applied;  it  must  ask  for  no  favor  and  no  screen. 
Truth  should  always  be  willing  to  stand  forth 
naked  and  she  need  not  blush.  If  we  ask  for  one 
concession  for  the  Bible;  if  we  attempt  to  cloak 
its  errors;  if  we  apologize  for  its  untruth  by  the 
specious  plea  that  the  Bible  was  not  given  to 
teach  science,  we  are  no  friends  of  Truth. 
Truth  scorns  human  cloaks;  it  cannot  abide 
human  patronage;  it  is  but  fettered  when  we 
would  throw  around  it  the  arms  of  our  protection. 
If  it  cannot  stand  out  in  the  glaring  light,  it  is  not 
Truth,  but  a  half  truth,  which  is  the  worst 
counterfeit  of  all.  On  most  of  the  subjects  of 
Revelation,  Science  is  not  competent  to  speak, 
because  the  facts  relate  to  a  realm  where  she 
cannot  enter;  but  on  this  first  chapter,  she  can 
speak  with  authority.  If  we  run  to  hide  our 
Bible  from  her  keenest  search;  if  we  piteously 
beg  for  quarter,  where  we  fear  it  is  vulnerable, 
we  impeach  our  own  faith.     About  the  contents 


PREFACE  11 

of  this  chapter,  Revelation  and  Science  are  both 
positive;  if  they  come  into  conflict,  the  battle 
must  be  fought  out  and  the  sooner  we  learn  the 
issue,  the  better  for  us. 

The  writer  does  not  claim  to  be  a  scientist. 
On  this  side  he  has  taken  for  his  authority  such 
men  as  Principal  Dawson  of  McGill  College 
Montreal;  Prof.  Dana  of  Yale;  the  late  Prof. 
Winchell  of  University  of  Michigan;  Prof.  War- 
ring of  Poughkeepsie;  the  late  Prof.  Guyot  of 
Princeton;  Prof.  Wright  of  Oberlin;  Prof.  Le 
Conte  of  the  University  of  California,  and  others 
equally  eminent  who  have  brought  the  story  of 
science  down  to  date. 

On  the  other  side  the  writer  has  taken  the 
record  in  the  original  language  and  with 
Hebrew  lexicon  and  concordance  has  at- 
tempted to  learn  what  it  really  does  say. 
He  has  relied  on  no  tradition  nor  even  trans- 
lation, but  has  sought  to  know  what  each  word 
means  in  its  derivation,  and  in  the  use  that  is 
made  of  it  in  other  passages  of  Scripture.  No 
reconciliation  has  been  attempted  between  Rev- 
elation and  Science,  for  reconciliation  implies 
enmity;  what  we  want  is  fullest  agreement,  or 
nothing. 

Perhaps    the    confession    should    be    frankly 


12  PREF/ICE . 

made  that  this  special  study  was  begun  with 
considerable  trepidation,  lest  wide  differences 
should  be  met  where  the  two  could  not  be 
brought  into  fullest  accord.  Many  men  of 
eminence,  who  believe  in  the  inspiration  of 
this  record,  have  yet  apologized  for  the  un- 
scientific statements  which  this  chapter  was 
thought  to  make  on  minor  points.  If  this  be 
the  case,  then  the  record  is  not  scientific,  and 
we  had  better  not  advance  the  claim.  But  the 
increasing  delight,  and  astonishment  as  the 
points  of  difference  disappeared  by  a  close 
study  of  the  record,  cannot  be  told.  As  the 
angel  conducted  John  through  heaven,  so 
Science  seems  to  walk  through  this  garden  of 
Revelation  to  point  out  its  marvels  and  sur- 
prises, and  then  explain  them  in  a  language 
familiar  on  earth. 

Condensation  has  been  studied.  The  age  no 
longer  reads  voluminous  works;  it  requires  of 
him  who  would  preach  or  teach,  that  he  shall 
gather  from  a  wide  range,  but  shall  put  it  within 
a  small  compass,  for  "Art  is  long  and  time  is 
fleeting."  Technical  discussion  and  terminology 
have  been  avoided  as  far  as  possible. 

It  was  for  some  time  a  question  whether  ref- 
erences to  the  scientific  authorities  should    not 


PREFACE  13 

be  constantly  made  by  foot-notes;  but  it  was 
found  that  these  would  be  so  frequent  as  to 
be  confusing,  for  often  the  same  sentences 
would  have  a  reference  to  several  authors,  and 
it  would  have  necessitated  an  entire  change  of 
style,  which  is  now  more  of  a  story  from  the 
side  of  science,  illustrating  the  great  truths  of 
the  text. 

The  question  of  authorship,  has  not  been  en- 
tered upon.  Popular  use,  and  even  the  authority 
of  Christ,  have  assigned  the  name  of  Moses  to 
this  part  of  Scripture,  and  no  change  has  been 
made  in  this  respect.  It  may  be  objected  that 
Moses  himself,  or  whoever  else  was  the  author, 
never  dreamed  of  what  is  supposed  to  be  found 
in  this  chapter.  It  is  not  meant  that  this  chap- 
ter is  scientific,  in  the  sense  of  a  text  book,  nor 
that  its  terms  and  classification  are  those  of 
modern  science;  but  that  it  contains  the  germs, 
which  in  the  future  should  develope  into  a  tree 
of  knowledge,  as  the  acorns,  once  scattered 
over  the  ground,  have  developed  into  the  great 
forest.  Moses  did  not  himself  realize  what 
his  word  contained,  because  they  contained 
expansive  ideas,  which  should  mean  more  to 
him  who  knows  more  about  the  subjects  to  which 
they  relate.     And  this  is  proof  of  the  inspiration 


14  PREFACE 

of  this  chapter,  in  that  it  contains  more  than 
any  one  of  that  early  day  could  possibly  have 
known,  and  requires  all  the  science  of  today  to 
unfold. 

If  this  be  a  revelation,  it  should  be  expected 
as  a  matter  of  course,  that  far  more  was 
contained  than  could  be  comprehended  by 
any  man,  for  the  communication  was  maJe, 
not  to  his  understanding,  but  to  his  faith. 
If  this  be  God's  truth,  it  should  mean  more 
to  an  advanced  age  than  it  could  mean  to 
one  of  less  knowledge,  just  as  the  heavens, 
which  have  always  declared  the  glory  of  God, 
must  tell  more  of  that  glory  to  the  age  which 
has  telescopes  than  to  that  age  which  had  none. 
But  the  depths  of  this  wonderful  chapter  have 
not  yet  been  sounded;  it  will  mean  far  more  to 
the  next  generation  than  it  can  mean  to  us,  if 
that  generation  be  more  enlightened  in  the  wis- 
dom of  God. 

Cleveland,    rSpj 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  I. — Prologue.  Conflict  between  science  and  revela- 
tion, here  if  anywhere;  Draper's  test;  the  chapter  could  have 
existed  in  writing  before  Moses;  Guyot's  cosmogony;  con- 
tent of  tirst  verse;  data  for  estimating  lapses  of  time;  the 
four  geologic  ages:  bara — to  create,  three  times  used,  and  just 
where  science  requires pp  1 5-38 

Chapter  II. — Primitive  Condition  of  Matter.  Nebula  hy- 
pothesis; three  scientific  statements  of  second  verse,  earth 
nebulous,  a  fluid  filled  all  space,  and  vibratory  motion  origi- 
nally imparted  by  Spirit  of  God;  clock  of  universe  running 
down;  Encke's  comet;  twelve  scientific  principles  in  first  two 
verses pp.  39-55 

Chapter  III. — First  Creative  Day.  The  two  decalogues;  Guy- 
ot's analysis;  creation  successive,  in  obedience  to  law;  com- 
mand to  light  correct  in  itsorder;  good  light  immediately;  di- 
vided from  darkness  by  earth  no  longer  self-luminous;  "even- 
ing was,  morning  was,  day  one";  ten  more  scientific  state- 
ments  pp.  56-67 

Chapter  IV. — Second  Day.  "Firmament"  a  mistranslation; 
the  story  told  by  science;  perfect  agreement  with  Moses; 
water  formed  after  earth  ceases  to  be  luminous;  no  divine 
commendation:  this  day  the  Azoic  age;  five  more  scientific 
statements,  yet  no  conflict  with  science pp.  70  83 


vi  T/1BLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Chapter  V. — Third  Day.  Mountains,  the  wrinkles  of  cool- 
ing earth;  Will  is  the  only  originating  force;  sea  "in  one 
place";  no  perspective;  no  conflict  as  to  first  appearance  of 
vegetation;  life  first  appears  in  era  of  matter;  law  applies  to 
life  as  well  as  to  matter;  new  power  of  reproduction;  coal 
measures;  highest  forms  of  vegetation pp,  84-115 

Chapter  VI. — Fourth  Day.  Purpose  of  the  luminaries,  not 
their  creation  given;  mere  clearing  of  clouds  unworthy  of  a 
whole  day;  six  months  of  darkness  unsuitable  to  growth  of 
highest  vegetation,  earth's  axis  must  then  have  received  its 
inclination;  negative  accuracy  in  no  allusion  to  week  or 
month:  not  intended  to  explain  all  the  purposes  of  sun  and 
moon;  equilibrium  of  heat  and  moisture  carefully  maintained. 
pp.  116-132 

Chapter  VII. — Fifth  Day.  Earth's  crust  Nature's  herbarium; 
animate  creation  the  temple  of  life;  Dana's  chart;  creeping 
and  flying  invertebrates, fishes,  reptiles,  birds;  Huxley's  chart. 
PP- 133-155 

Chapter  VIII. — Sixth  Day.  Marine  preceed  laud  animals  by 
a  whole  creative  day;  herbivora,  reptiles,  carnivora;  man 
appears  on  same  day;  preparation  for  him;  raised  far  above 
other  animals  by  endowment  of  spiritual  nature;  divine  com- 
mendation not  pronounced  upon  man;  extinction  of  ferocious 

species;  most  hopeful  of  all    the   statements  yet    made 

pp.  156 -183 

Chapter  IX.— Seventh  Day.  Human  era  of  geology;  no 
evening  mentioned;  education  by  discipline;  God's  rest  not 
cessation  from  moral  work;  a  free  moral  being  capable  of 
choice;  science  too  knows  something  wrong  in  the  world, 

which  revelation  calls  sin;  sabbath  to  be  sanctified 

pp.  184-198 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  vii 

Chapter  X. — Method  of  Creation.  Appearances  need  to  be 
translated;  translation  by  science  always  received  by  fright- 
ened protest;  individuals  now  created  by  evolution;  God's 
plan  always  the  same;  meaning  of  evolution;  Moses  does  not 
contradict  evolution,  but  seems  to  require  it.. .  .pp.  199-215 

Chapter  XI, — Antiquity  of  Man.  Conflict  between  so-called 
Bible  chronology  and  geology;  gap  decreasing  from  both 
sides;  Scripture  genealogies  not  successive;  about  ten  thous- 
and years  for  age  of  man  required  by  historical  argument; 
same  required  by  geology pp.  216-232 

Chapter  XII. — Conclusion.  God's  Word  tested  by  time,  ex- 
perience, history,  science,  worthy  of  fullest  confidence 

pp.  233-239 


IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

CHAPTER  I. 

PROLOGUE. 

"In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth." 

The  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  prophecy 
turned  backward.  It  cannot  be  history,  for  it 
reaches  back  before  man  was,  before  the  earth 
was,  yes  before  time  itself  began  to  be. 

On  such  adventurous  flight,  imagination 
would  not  venture  forth  alone.  The  trembling 
seer  must  have  been  encouraged  and  borne  across 
the  measureless  distances  by  other  than  human 
power. 

These  twinkling  points,  which  he  shows  us  in 
the  depths  of  the  past  and  which  form  this  galaxy 
of  Genesis,  are  they  real  stars,  or  are  they  only 
the  after-glow  of  the  distant  fires  kindled  by 
some  sagacious  man  primeval.-' 

We  are  children  of  eternity;  we  are  soon  going 
out  into  the  limitless   spaces   and    we    want    to 

15 


IC  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

know  whether  we    can    trust    prophecy    turned 
forward. 

And  these  other  hghts  twinkhng  in  the  depths 
of  the  future  and  forming  the  far  more  brilliant 
galaxy  of  the  Apocalypse,  which  closes  our 
Bible,  are  they  too,  real  stars  by  which  we  can 
guide  our  course,  or  are  they  only  the  phos- 
phorescence of  human  genius? 

We  are  going  out  where  living  man  has  never 
been,  where  earth  shall  not  be,  yes  where  time 
shall  be  no  more.  All  that  we  have  to  relieve 
the  darkness  of  the  two  eternities  is  this  Word. 

Does  it  tell  us  true  what  shall  be  ?  We  can 
better  trust  it,  if  it  be  shown  that  it  told  us  true 
of  what  has  been. 

The  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  necessary  to 
the  last  chapter  of  Revelation,  How  dare  we 
believe  in  the  river  of  life  and  the  city  that  hath 
foundations,  if  we  cannot  believe  what  the  Word 
has  told  us  of  the  beginning,  the  light,  the  air, 
the  earth  and  its  peopling?  It  is  not  sufficient 
that  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  be  fairly  true; 
true  in  a  general  way;  we  require  that  all  its 
statements  shall  be  wholly  accurate. 

Is  Moses  scientific?  does  his  record  square 
with  what  science  can  vouch  of  the  past?  So 
far  as  science  can  follow  him,  we  dare  not  relieve 


PROLOGUE  \1 


him  of  the  strictest  accountability.  He  has 
gone  out  of  his  way  to  tell  us  of  things  which 
in  no  vva}'  concern  our  salvation;  things  which 
should  not  have  been  told  unless  absolutely  true; 
but  science  is  true,  and  therefore  he  has  no  right 
to  ask  to  be  screened  from  the  responsibility  of 
scientific  accuracy.  These  facts  could  not  have 
been  known  by  the  writer;  they  cover  ground 
which  human  knowledge  had  not  then  begun  to 
traverse;  if  known  at  all,  it  must  have  been  by 
divine  inspiration.  While  the  language  may  be 
liable  to  the  imperfections  of  a  human  vehicle, 
yet  the  great  facts  themselves  should  not  need 
the  slightest  apology,  for  this  would  not  be  a 
question  of  human,  but  of  divine  errancy. 

This  cosmogony  involves  the  credibility  of  the 
Book  which  has  disclosed  to  us  the  way  of  life, 
and  we  insist  upon  having  everything  connected 
with  our  salvation  so  sure,  that  nothing  can  sug- 
gest a  doubt.  It  is  not  sacrilege  then  that  we 
should  ask  science  to  remove  the  soil  so  that  we 
may  see  if  the  foundations  are  built  upon  the 
bed  rock.  The  places  on  which  rest  the  two 
ends  of  the  rainbow  will  not  bear  scrutiny,  but 
the  viaduct  to  heaven  should  not  fear  to  allow 
science  to  lay  bare  the  base  and  examine  the  pier 
on  which  its  earth-end  is  secured. 


18  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

This  record  can  claim  to  be  divinely  inspired 
only  because  Its  statements  are  scientifically 
true;  if  they  are  partly  true  and  partly  false  it 
can  be  nothing  more  than  a  shrewd  speculation. 
"It  is  a  flippant  remark  to  make  in  this  con- 
nection," says  Principal  Dawson,  *'to  say  that 
Scripture  was  not  given  to  teach  science." 
While  this  is  true,  it  does  not  apply  here;  the 
information  here  offered  is  wholly  gratuitous; 
not  necessary  "to  make  thee  wise  unto  salva- 
tion," so  that  we  have  a  right  to  expect  it  shall 
be  accurate  information. 

In  his  "Intellectual  Development  of  Europe," 
Dr.  Draper  tells  us  what  a  revelation  should  be 
able  to  do.  He  is  speaking  of  the  Koran,  and 
says:  "Considering  the  asserted  origin  of  this 
book,  indirectly  from  God  himself,  we  might 
justly  expect  that  it  would  bear  to  be  tried  by 
any  standard  that  man  can  apply,  and  vindicate 
its  truth  and  excellence  in  the  ordeal  of  human 
criticism.  As  years  pass  on  and  human  science 
becomes  more  exact,  more  comprehensive,  its 
conclusions  must  be  found  in  unison  therewith. 
When  occasions  arise,  it  should  furnish  us,  at 
least  the  forshadowing  of  the  great  truths  dis- 
covered by  astronomy  and  geology,  not  offering 
for  them  wild  fictions  of  earlier  ages,  the  inven- 
tions of  the  infancy  of  man." 


PROLOGUE  19 

Though  intended  as  a  back  thrust  at  the  Bible, 
by  setting  up  a  test  which  he  thought  could  not 
be  fulfilled,  we  will  accept  this  as  a  just  demand, 
and  we  are  willing  to  test  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  by  it,  and  admit  that  if  it  cannot  meet 
it,  then  this  chapter  has  no  right  to  ask  us  to 
believe  it  is  inspired.  If  this  be  a  part  of  God's 
Book,  it  must  be  true,  and  truth  asks  no  favors 
at  our  hands;  we  need  not  run  to  hide  it  from 
the  severest  investigation  by  whomsoever  made. 
If  there  be  a  conflict  between  Revelation  and 
Science,  Truth  cannot  be  on  both  sides;  it  must 
be  on  the  one  side  or  the  other, 

"And  truth  the  day  must  win 
To  doubt  would  be  disloyalty; 
To  falter  would  be  sin." 

If  Revelation  and  Science  be  antagonists,  a 
conflict  is  inevitable;  by  all  the  efforts  of  the 
friends  of  either  side  such  conflict  can  no  more 
be  avoided  than  it  can  between  light  and  dark- 
ness. 

In  this  chapter  Revelation  has  deliberately 
come  down  into  the  domain  of  science,  and  so 
has  made  this  a  legitimate  field  where  they  may 
meet,  nay  must  meet.  Here  they  must  fight  to 
the  death  if  they  be  foes;  but  if  it  be  found  that 
their  supposed  differences  have  been  false  accu- 


20  75  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

sations  brought  by  the  indiscreet  followers  of 
each  against  the  other,  they  will  come  forth  from 
the  meeting  firmer  and  faster  friends,  because 
of  their  mistaken  enmit}'. 

Even  so  eminent  a  scientist  as  Dr.  Draper 
insists  that  there  is  such  an  enmity,  and  he  has 
written  a  "History  of  the  Conflict  between  Re- 
ligion and  Science."  If  however  we  insist  upon 
the  definition  of  terms,  we  shall  see  that  no 
such  conflict  is  possible.  Religion  is  the  fulfill- 
ment of  our  obligation  to  God  and  to  man,  and 
to  this,  science  can  make  no  opposition. 

No,  it  is  answered;  it  is  not  with  religion 
that  science  has  a  conflict,  but  with  the  Bible. 
If  we  again  insist  upon  bringing  the  charge 
down  from  its  cloudy  vagueness,  and  ask  where 
that  conflict  lies,  we  shall  find  that  it  is  not  with 
the  Bible  either,  but  with  the  church,  or  theology, 
or  tradition,  or  superstition.  But  the  church  is 
not  the  Bible,  for  it  has  often  misrepresented 
the  Bible;  theology  has  often  made  a  conflict 
when  none  existed;  tradition  may  be  wrong. 
Like  Job's  three  friends,  these  may  have  gotten 
the  cause  they  championed  into  a  false  position, 
and  yet  the  Bible  be  true,  as  the  heavens  have 
always  "declared  the  glory  of  God"  even  though 
astrology  and  many  theories  of  the  heavens 
were  wrong. 


PROLOGUE  21 


"Science  interpreted  is  theology;  science  pros- 
ecuted to  its  conclusions,  leads  to  God." 

The  place  therefore  where  the  relations  be- 
tween Revelation  and  Science,  will  be  strained, 
if  anywhere,  will  be  on  the  field  opened  by  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis;  we  are  to  enter  this 
field  and  see  if  even  here  they  do  not  dwell  in 
complete  accord. 

Whence  came  this  chapter?  Higher  Critjcism 
thinks  it  finds  evidence  that  it  was  written  by  a 
different  hand  than  that  which  wrote  the  second 
chapter.  This  conclusion  may  be  correct,  for  it 
is  probable  that  Moses  found  this  record  already 
to  hand,  and  he  had  but  to  incorporate  it  into 
the  body  of  his  writing.  Whether  this  revelation 
was  made  to  Moses  or  Abraham  or  Noah  or  even 
to  Adam  and  handed  down  by  oral  tradition, 
matters  not;  it  has  been  incorporated  into  the 
sacred  writings,  and  Christ  has  given  to  it  the 
authority  of  Moses'  name. 

That  this  document  could  have  been  handed 
down  in  writing  from  even  a  much  earlier  age,  is 
now  quite  certain,  for  writing  is  known  to  have 
been  in  existence  long  before  the  time  of  Moses. 
In  a  recent  article  Prof.  Sayce  of  Oxford  de- 
scribes what  he  calls  the  "romance  of  archae- 
ology."    Dr.  Flinders  Petrie  has    discovered  at 


]S  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


Tel-el-Amarna  in  Egypt,  tablets  which  give  us 
a  gimpse  of  the  social  and  political  life  in  Canaan, 
a  century  before  the  Exodus, 

Among  these  letters  written  in  the  cuneiform 
characters  of  Babylonia,  was  one  from  Zimrida, 
the  governor  of  Lachish  in  Palestine,  to  Pharaoh. 
Two  years  ago  Dr.  Petrie  undertook  excavations 
in  an  artificial  mound  in  southern  Palestine, 
called  Tel-el-Hesy,  Called  away  himself,  he  left 
the  work  to  be  prosecuted  by  Mr.  Bliss,  who 
unearthed  at  the  very  close  of  the  work,  a  small 
clay  tablet  also  in  cuneiform  characters  similar 
to  those  of  the  letters  which  had  been  exhumed 
down  in  Egypt,  at  Tel-el-Amarna.  When 
this  tablet  was  read  it  was  found  to  contain 
the  name  of  this  governor  Zimrida,  who  had 
written  the  letter  to  the  king  of  Egypt,  and  it 
refers  to  a  time  a  hundred  years  and  more  before 
the  Exodus. 

For  more  than  3,000  years  the  letter  which 
Zimrida  had  addressed  to  Pharaoh,  and  the  let- 
ter which  he  had  read  at  home,  had  been  lying 
beneath  the  ground,  the  one  on  the  banks  of 
the  Nile,  and  the  other  on  the  desolate  site  in 
Southern  Palestine,  and  now  they  are  brought 
together,  and  found  to  be  the  two  halves  of 
this    correspondence,   a     veritable    romance  of 


PROLOGUE  23 


archaeology.  In  these  we  have  conclusive  de- 
monstration that  writing  was  common  several 
hundred  years  before  the  time  of  Moses,  so 
that  this  document  containing  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis,  could  have  been  handed  down  in 
writing,  which  Moses  had  but  to  embody  in  his 
own  history. 

But  we  have  proof  also  that  writing  existed 
even  before  the  time  of  Abraham,  so  that  the 
first  chapter  may  have  been  written  as  early 
as  then,  and  handed  down  in  a  more  correct 
form  than  by  oral  tradition. 

Tablets  giving  an  account  of  the  Flood  from 
an  Assyrian  standpoint  have  been  exhumed  from 
the  ruins  of  Nineveh. 

Assurbanipal,  king  of  Assyria,  reigned  at  Nin- 
eveh about  673  B.  C.  ;  he  was  the  grandson  of 
Sennacherib,  and  known  to  the  Greeks  as  Sar- 
danapalus.  Having  inherited  a  royal  library  of 
clay  tablets,  he  determined  to  enrich  it;  enjoying 
political  repose,  like  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  at 
Alexandria,  he  sent  out  scribes  to  transcribe  for 
him  the  literature  of  other  peoples.  These  scribes 
ransacked  the  record  chambers  of  the  oldest 
temples  in  the  world. — Babel,  Erech,  Accad, 
Ur,  and  made  copies  of  their  tablets.  The  orig- 
inals,   from    which   these    Nineveh   copies   were 


34  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

made,  were  very  old,  claiming  to  have  dated  as 
much  as  i,6oo  years  before  the  time  of  Assur- 
banipal.  That  would  show  that  writing  existed 
two  hundred  years  before  the  time  of  Abraham, 
and  how  much  earlier  we  cannot  as  yet  know. 
This  Assyrian  account  of  creation,  the  fall  of 
man  and  the  flood,  which  have  been  translated 
for  us,  may  have  been  copied  from  the  temple 
archives  of  Ur,  where  Abraham  lived,  who  may 
have  himself  read  the  originals. 

That  Abraham  was  a  scholar  and  an  astrono- 
mer, we  know;  that  he  was  familiar  with  writing 
which  had  existed  in  his  own  city  at  least  for 
two  hundred  years,  was  probable;  it  is  therefore 
at  least  possible,  and  even  probable  that  this 
first  chapter  of  Genesis  was  in  the  form  of  writ- 
ing in  the  time  of  Abraham. 

But  whoever  the  author,  this  record  takes  a 
bold  step;  it  makes  certain  statements  on  scien- 
tific subjects,  commits  them  to  writing,  binds 
them  up  with  a  religious  ritual  of  which  the 
people  will  be  very  tenacious,  and  so  preserved, 
it  hands  them  down  the  centuries,  which  it 
challenges  later  science  to  disprove. 

"Moses  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians,"  and  if  this  chapter  be  only  the  spec- 
ulation   of    a  learned  man,  it  may  have  its  little 


PROLOGUE  25 


day,  but  it  will  surely  be  soon  shoved  aside  and 
thrown  into  the  waste  basket  of  science. 

The  theories  which  have  been  advanced  on  the 
great  subjects  here  propounded,  cannot  be  coun- 
ted; they  have  had  their  day,  and  soon  have 
given  place  to  others  that  in  turn  lived  no  longer 
than  their  predecessors.  Prof.  Henry  Drummond 
tells  us  that  a  text  book  on  science  is  obsolete 
in  ten  years;  how  then  will  this  record  be  able 
to  survive  centuries  and  prove  the  one  exception 
to  everything  that  has  ever  been  written  on 
scientific  subjects? 

Here  is  a  whole  cosmogony,  covering  the  vast 
period,  during  which  all  the  changes  on  the  earth 
took  place,  from  the  "beginning,'*to  the  comple- 
tion of  creation.  It  is  liable  to  error  on  a 
thousand  points.  Whoever  started  this  adven- 
turous bark,  sailed  on  unknown  seas;  there  were 
a  thousand  Syllas  and  a  thousand  Charybdises 
on  which  it  must  surely  be  wrecked.  If  it  had 
been  content  to  make  one  or  two  statements, 
we  should  not  fear  so  much,'but  it  has  been  so 
indiscreet  as  to  hazard   all. 

With  all  its  vast  inheritance  from  the  past, 
science  has  not  yet  presumed  to  speak  the 
last  word  on  these  great  subjects.  How  dared 
any  man  or  any   age   in   the     long   ago,    before 


36  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

there  was  any  science;  how  dared  they  commit 
themselves  so  positively  and  presume  to  make 
a  record   that   will   admit   of    no  correction? 

Time  is  a  sieve  which  ruthlessly  separates  the 
wheat  from  the  chaff;  the  gleanings  which  have 
been  preserved  from  the  past  are  very  few; 
ancient  books  which  pretend  to  give  us  knowl- 
edge on  scientific  subjects,  are  discarded,  every 
one.  But  here  is  a  record  of  scientific  facts  which 
is  the  one  single  exception;  it  has  not  only  sur- 
vived and  is  still  read,  but  that  it  is  in  agree- 
ment with  present  knowledge  is  shown  by  this 
incident. 

Prof.  Guyot  tells  us  that  he  was  preparing  at 
Neufchatel,  a  course  of  lectures  on  General  His- 
tory, he  being  then  professor  of  History  in  the 
Swiss  University,  and  thought  to  commence  it 
with  an  introductory  lecture  on  Cosmogony,  or 
the  world  before  Man,  for  which  astronomy, 
biology  and  geology  afforded  facts.  He  worked 
out  the  order  of  events  without  a  thought  of  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis.  When  his  cosmogony, 
thus  deduced,  was  complete,  it  flashed  upon  him, 
he  says,  that  it  set  forth  essentially  the  same 
order  of  events  as  the  cosmogony  of  the  Bible. 
He  then  took  up  Genesis  for  careful  study,  and 
found  the  two  so  much  alike  that   the    explana- 


PROLOGUE  27 


tions  of  the  first  chapter  which  he  haspubhshed, 
is  the  result. 

Before  entering  upon  its  careful  investigation, 
let  us  be  sure  that  we  rid  our  minds  of  every- 
thing which  we  have  learned  about  it  from  other 
sources  than  the  chapter  itself.  It  is  not  what 
others  have  said  that  Moses  said,  but  we  want 
to  ask  what  the  record  itself  says.  We  may 
have  been  told  that  Moses  says  the  world  was 
suddenly  called  into  existence;  Moses  himself 
does  not  say  so.  We  may  have  understood 
Moses  to  say  that  the  earth  was  created  a  solid 
globe;  he  nowhere  says  so.  Tradition  may  have 
taught  us  that  creation  was  finished  in  six  days 
of  twenty-fours  each;  Moses  does  not  say  so. 
All  this  is  but  the  reading  into  the  record  of  the 
false  science  of  the  past  ages.  . 

The  word  "day"  is  used  in  four  different  senses 
in  this  record,  and  therefore  it  would  be  unfair  to 
pledge  it  to  the  one  period  of  twenty  four  hours 
only. 

In  the  first  creative  day,  "God  called  the  light 
rt'rtr, and  the  darkness  He  called  night;"  that 
could  not  have  been  a  solar  day,  because  the 
sun  is  not  spoken  of  until  the  fourth  creative 
day. 

"And    God   said — let    there   be   lights   in    the 


tS  MOSES  SCfENTlFIC? 


firmament  of  the  heaven — and  let   them   be   for 

signs  and  for  seasons  and  for  c^aj/s  and  years;" 
these  were  days  of  twenty-four  hours  each. 

"And  God  made  the  two  great  lights,  the 
greater  to  rule  the  day,  and  the  lesser  to  rule 
the  night;"  this  day  could  consist  of  only  twelve 
hours,  or  the  time  when  the  sun  was  shining. 

"These  are  the  generations  of  the  heaven  and 
of  the  earth  when  they  were  created,  in  the  day 
that  the  Lord  God  made  earth  and  heaven;" 
here  day  covers  the  whole  creative  period.  Re- 
membering the  length  of  God's  creative  day, 
Moses  wrote  in  the  90th  Psalm — "For  a  thousand 
years  in  thy  sight  are  as  yesterday  when  it  is  past 
and  as  a  watch  in  the  night." 

Let  us  be  careful  to  put  away  all  bias  or  pre- 
conceived notions,  while  we  come  to  study 
this  matchless  condensation  of  scientific  facts, 
which  forms  one  of  the  three  great  mount- 
ain peaks  of  Scripture.  As  we  scan  the  horizon 
of  Revelation,  the  three  Alpine  summits  which 
pierce  the  sky,  are  the  first  chapter  of  Gen- 
esis, the  ten  commandments,  and  the  sermon 
on  the  mount.  All  these  are  evidently  not  arti- 
ficial mounds  of  human  erection,  but  are  the 
work  of  divine  hands. 

If  the  apostles  of   science   should   attempt   to 


PROLOGUE  29 


prepare  a  creed  of  creation,  they  could  not  equal 
this  masterpiece  of  Moses;  this  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  is  the  "Apostles'  Creed"  of  science.  It 
begins  large  and  in  a  way  worthy  of  a  divine 
author.  "In  the  beginning,  God  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth." 

That  first  verse,  contains  five  universal  terms 
■ — God — heaven — earth — creation — beginning, 

"It  is  the  weightiest  sentence  ever  uttered;  it 
covers  all  past  time,  all  conceivable  space,  all 
known  things,  all  power,  all  intelligence,  and  the 
most  comprehensive  act  of  that  intelligence  and 
power.  It  tells  of  the  origin  of  things,  names 
the  originator,  states  the  time  of  the  origin,  and 
coordinates  all  into  one  great  system.  This 
first  verse  is  a  statement  on  nearly  all  the  great 
problems  which  now  exercise  scientists  and  phil- 
osophers— God,  creation,  the  whole,  eternity, 
cause,  time,  space,  infinity,  force,  design,  intelli- 
gence, will,  destiny,  universality.  There  is  in  it 
the  germ  of  the  the  whole  Bible,  as  well  as  the 
germ  of  all  science  and  philosophy.  Compare 
this  first  verse,  with  the  first  verse  of  any  history, 
or  biography,  or  any  work  of  man.  These  begin 
with  a  date,  tell  the  author's  ancestors,  or  some 
trivial  matters.  The  first  verse  of  Genesis  be- 
gins very  differently;   if  nothing  else  in  the  Bible 


I 

30  is  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC^ 

is  worthy  of  God,  this  first  verse  is  certainly 
worthy  of  Him.  Had  the  world  met  at  the 
Almighty's  feet  to  hear  Him  speak,  it  could 
have  heard  Him  utter  no  sentence  worthier  of 
Him,  in  tones  of  thunder  from  His  infinite  throne!' 
Here  is  the  first  word  of  history,  for  it  begins 
with  the  beginning.  Here  is  the  first  word  of 
philosophy,  for  we  cannot  go  beyond  the  first 
cause.  Here  is  the  first  word  of  science,  for  we 
cannot  go  beyond  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 
This  is  a  sentence  of  great  beginnings — the  be- 
ginning of  the  world,  the  beginning  of  history, 
the  beginning  of  force,  the  beginning  of  revela- 
tion, the  beginning  of  religion,  the  beginning  of 
science;  the  beginning,  in  short  of  the  whole 
course  of  things  which  has  come  down  to  the 
present.  This  sentence  declares  there  is  a  God, 
and  at  once  settles  the  greatest  question  known 
to  man — is  there  a  God?  yes  there  is,  and  He 
created  all  things.  At  once  polytheism  is  over- 
turned; all  these  which  pagans  worship,  the  sun, 
the  moon,  trees,  animals,  stones, — these  were 
all  created  by  the  one  God.  It  settles  the  ques- 
tion of  creation;  matter  was  not  by  spontaneous 
generation, — not  a  blind  working  out  of  force; 
there  was  an  Intelligence  which  made  and 
planned  all.     A  great  free  will  is  the  first  cause. 


PROLOGUE  31 


the  beginning  of  the  chain  of  cause  and  effect; 
matter  is  subject  to  will,  to  thought;  thought  is 
not  the  effect  of  natural,  molecular  action.  It 
settles  the  unity  of  God.  God  made  all;  He  is 
alone,  not  one  of  man}'  gods;  if  everything  was 
made  by  Elohim,  there  is  no  place  for  any  other. 
It  teaches  too,  that  Nature  is  a  unity — it  is  one 
great  system.  Here  is  the  foundation  of  uni- 
versal law,  the  continuity  of  law,  and  all  those 
great  principles  which  science  is  now  establishing 
so  firmly.  This  sentence  is  a  philosophy  in  itself. 
From  the  very  dawn, philosophy  has  been  work- 
ing on  this  verse,  yet  in  this  nineteenth  century 
it  has  gotten  no  farther.  The  scientific  world 
is  still  engaged  on  the  first  verse  of  Genesis, 
which  has  furnished  nearly  all  its  current  prob- 
lems that  are  as  fresh  to-day,  as  they  were  in 
those  days,  and  that  are  still  pressing  for  a  solu- 
tion. "When  God  here  spake,  He  spake  prob- 
lems for  all  time.  For  He  spake  so  clearly  that 
all  can  understand.  He  spake  so  grandly  that 
none  can  fully  comprehend." 

"In  the  beginning,"  when  was  that.''  Tradi- 
tion has  said — six  thousand  years  ago,  but  the 
Bible  does  not  say  so.  Some  data,  from  which 
to  estimate  what  lapses  of  time  have  been  since 
*'the  beginning,"  may  be    found    in    the    "Great 


32  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC 

American  Desert."  For  the  most  vivid  descrip- 
tion of  the  geology  of  this  forsaken  region,  we 
are  indebted  to  Dr.  Newberry,  the  geologist  of 
Ives'  Colorado  Expedition  under  the  General 
Government.  This  region  is  a  vast  plateau, 
stretching  for  hundreds  of  miles  in  either  direc- 
tion. Far  in  the  hazy  horizon  may  be  seen  the 
bold  wall,  which  rises  to  a  more  elevated  table- 
land, composed  of  overyling  strata.  These 
higher  strata  were  once  continuous  over  the 
surface  of  the  lower  plateau,  but  have  here  been 
worn  away  by  the  action  of  water.  Still  farther 
in  the  horizon,  looms  up  another  gigantic  terrace, 
rising  to  the  upper  plateau  of  the  desert.  The 
traveler,  journeying  across  this  apparently 
monotonous  plain,  finds  himself  suddenly  stand- 
ing on  the  brink  of  a  precipice.  Down,  far 
down  into  the  gloomy  chasm  at  his  feet,  he  en- 
deavors to  cast  a  look;  it  is  a  vertical  rent 
through  the  strata  to  the  appalling  depth  of  more 
than  a  mile.  Far  down  at  the  bottom,  winds 
the  stream  which  has  executed  this  tremendous 
piece  of  engineering,  quiet  now  as  a  lamb,  but 
in  the  spring  time  roaring  and  destructive  as  a 
lion.  This  is  the  Colorado  river.  The  great 
Black  Canon  of  the  Colorado,  is  a  gorge  with 
perpendicular  walls  of  rock  three  hundred  miles 


PROLOGUE  33 


long,  and  from  three  thousand  to  six  thousand 
feet  high.  All  this  vast  tunnel  has  been  exca- 
vated by  the  slow  action  of  the  water;  how  long 
must  it  have  taken?  What  aeons  must  have 
rolled  by  while  this  unparalleled  work  was  in 
progress?  And  yet  this  work  must  have  been 
limited  to  the  later  ages,  since  the  gorge  cuts 
through  cretaceous  strata,  which  were  deposited 
in  the  last  period  of  Mesozoic  time.  Man  was 
yet  an  idea  of  the  Creator  in  the  far  distant 
future,  and  lazy  reptiles  held  dominion  of  the 
fair  domain.  Vast  then  as  was  the  work,  and 
vast  as  must  have  been  its  duration,  its  com- 
mencement dates  back  to  but  the  middle  of 
geological  time. 

Reflect  what  this  means  as  to  the  time  since 
"the  beginning."  Here  is  a  river  which  has  cut 
its  channel  through  solid  rock  to  a  depth  of  more 
than  a  mile;  a  thousand  feet  of  that  depth  was 
through  hardest  granite;  how  long  must  the  in- 
appreciable action  of  water  have  taken  to  do 
this  vast  work?  And  yet,  long,  immeasurably 
long  as  it  must  have  been,  the  river  began  that 
work  not  earlier  than  the  last  period  of  Mesozoic 
time. 

The  life  of  the  earth  has  been  divided  into  four 
great    periods  — the    Azoic,  or   lifeless    age;   the 


34  /5  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC 


Paleozoic,  or  oldest  age  of  life;  the  Mesozoic,  or 
middle  age  of  life;  Cainozoic,  or  recent  age  of 
life.  And  the  Colorado  began  its  work,  not 
earlier  than  the  last  of  the  middle  period.  When 
then  must  have  been  the  "beginning?"  Geolog- 
ical periods  increase  in  length  as  we  go  back- 
ward. Dana  estimates  the  ratio  for  the  Paleo- 
zoic, Mesozoic  and  Cainozoic  periods  to  be 
I2;3;i;  that  is,  the  Mesozoic  is  three  times  as 
long  as  the  Cainozoic,  and  the  Paleozoic  is  four 
times  as  great  as  the  Mesozoic;  how  many  times 
greater  was  the  Azoic,  we  cannot  tell.  But  this 
river  work  began  in  the  last  of  the  periods  rep- 
resented by  the  ratio — 3. 

Let  us  try  to  estimate  the  immensity  of  time 
since  the  "beginning"  in  another  way.  There  is 
a  crust  of  stratified  rock,  twenty-five  miles  in 
thickness,  resting  upon  the  original  foundation 
which  is  commonly  granite.  Now  stratified  rock 
is  that  which  has  been  formed  in  layers  under 
water.  Its  materials  have  been  gnawed  off  from 
the  previous  rocks  by  the  action  of  water,  carried 
off  by  the  violence  of  the  waves,  by  the  action 
of  streams,  or  held  in  solution,  and  have  then 
been  deposited  in  layers,  the  heaviest  at  the 
bottom,  the  lightest  and  finest  material  at  the 
top;  then  crystallization    by    heat,  or   chemical 


PROLOGUE  35 


action,  or  else  by  pressure  has  solidified  this 
material  into  rock.  But  how  was  sufficient 
material  secured  to  form  a  crust  of  twenty-five 
miles  in  thickness  of  stratified  rocks?  The  driv- 
ing storms  and  the  ceaseless  erosion  by  the 
waves  and  streams,  actually  ground  up  all  this 
vast  supply  from  the  old  granites  which  lie  at 
the  bottom  of  this  pile.  This  vast  thickness  of 
twenty-five  miles,  is  built  up  out  of  the  ruins  of 
older  formations.  The  ruthless  tooth  of  time, 
even  as  now,  silently  and  slowly  gnawed  away 
in  this  work  of  disintegration,  and  then  the  re- 
morseful waters  sought  to  atone  for  the  deed  by 
building  the  ruins  up  again  into  stratified  rock. 
Hoary  ruins  they  are!  compared  with  them  what 
are  the  marbles  of  Nineveh,  or  the  columns  of  the 
Parthenon.''  Many  of  the  palaces  of  modern 
Rome  are  built  of  the  stones  of  which  the  old 
amphitheatre  has  been  robbed  by  vandal  hands. 
These  stratified  rocks  are  the  modern  structures, 
built  up  of  the  materials  which  the  vandal  Time 
has  stolen  from  Nature's  primeval  walls. 

But  how  long  must  that  slow,  very  slow  process 
been  going  on.'  The  first  and  lowest  great  sys- 
tem of  strata — the  Laurentian — is  in  Canada 
thirty  and  forty  thousand  feet  thick,  or  nearly  five 
miles.    How  enormous  a  bulk  of  solid  rocks  was 


36  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

ground  to  powder  to  furnish  materials  for  these 
Laurentian  strata  alone,  may  be  imagined,  when 
we  realize  that  the  average  elevation  of  North 
America  is  about  twelve  hundred  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea;  and  if  the  entire  continent  were 
ground  to  powder  down  to  the  ocean's  level,  and 
distributed  over  an  equal  area  of  the  ocean's 
bottom,  it  would  afford  a  bed  of  strata  not  one 
twentieth  the  thickness  of  the  Laurentian  system 
alone.  But  the  Laurentian  is  not  one  fifth  of 
the  thickness  of  the  whole  crust  of  stratified 
rock.  How  long  must  it  have  taken  for  the 
waters  to  grind  up  in  its  voracious  maw  enough 
material  to  build  up  again  so  vast  a  monument 
to  the  immensity  of  Time?  "How  long,  O, 
Lord;  how  long?"  And  yet,  and  yet  even  this 
does  not  carry  us  back  to  the  beginning  of  which 
Moses  speaks.  It  is  the  beginning  of  time  itself, 
the  very  beginning  of  matter,  out  of  which  future 
worlds  were  to  be  formed.  Between  "the  be- 
ginning" and  the  present,  there  yawns  a  chasm  so 
great  that  not  mathematics  itself  can  fling  even 
an  imaginary  arch  across  it. 

These  v^^ords  are  big  with  meaning;  they  try 
to  tell  of  space,  of  worlds,  of  the  original  con- 
dition of  things  —new  wine  in  old  bottles.  Three 
times  in  this  chapter  occurs  the  word — dara  "to 


PROLOGUE  37 


create,"  and  those  three  times  are  just  where 
science  too  comes  in  and  admits  there  must  have 
been  a  creation  of  something  out  of  nothing.  "In 
the  beginning"  God — bara — called  into  being 
what  had  not  existed  before.  After  this  absolute 
creation  of  original  matter,  this  word  does  not 
occur  again  until  the  first  animal  life  is  called 
into  being;  then  again  God — bara — created  the 
great  stretched-out  sea  monsters;  He  called  into 
being  what  had  not  existed  before,  viz  sentient, 
volitional  life.  Once  more  God — bara — created 
man  in  his  own  image;  called  into  being  what 
had  not  existed  before,  viz.  spiritual  life.  Bara 
is  thus  reserved  for  marking  the  first  introduction 
of  each  of  the  three  spheres  of  existence,  the 
world  of  matter,  the  world  of  life  and  the  world 
of  spirit.  Wearied  with  her  long  efforts  to  dis- 
cover whence  came  matter,  what  is  life,  what  is 
spirit ;  with  spent  breath  and  aching  brow, 
science  puts  down  the  problem  and  confesses 
that  at  these  three  stages  there  must  indeed  have 
been  an  original  creation.  At  these  points  she 
says  the  best  statement  that  can  be  made  is — 
bara  Elohim — God  created.  Matter  is  not  eternal ; 
God  created  the  cosmic  dust,  that  plastic  mate- 
rial out  of  which  our  own  and  other  worlds  were 
moulded. 


38  Is  MOSES  SClENTinC? 

This  great  fact  of  a  beginning  science  fully 
sustains.  "All  portions  of  science,  and  especially 
that  beautiful  one  the  Dissipation  of  Energy, 
point  unanimously  to  a  beginning"  (Tait)  "All 
modern  science  seems  to  point  to  the  finite  dura- 
tion of  our  system  in  its  present  form"(Newcomb). 

If  matter  was  created,  there  must  have  been 
a  First  Cause;  the  original  material  must  have 
been  called  into  being  by  some  one;  Revelation 
says  it  was — God. 

Far  back  in  the  hazy  past,  yet  not  lost  in  the 
bosom  of  eternity;  somewhere  within  the  limits 
of  time,  that  original  creation  must  have  taken 
place;  Revelation  says  it  was  "in  the  beginning." 
This  is  enough ;  this  is  all  we  can  understand; 
no  need  of  anything  more  deffinite,  for  finite 
mind  can  stretch  its  utmost  thought  no  further. 
There  must  have  been  a  First  Cause;  there 
must  have  been  an  original  creation;  there  must 
have  been  a  commencement  in  time.  All  this 
is  grandly  and  correctly  summed  up  for  us  in  the 
first  article  of  the  creed  of  science— "In  the  be- 
ginning God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth." 


CHAPTER  II. 

PRIMITIVE  CONDITION  OF  MATTER. 

^''Aiid  tJic  earth  was  emptiness  aud  desolate- 
ness ;  and  darkness  zvas  upon  the  face  of  the 
abyss;  and  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the 
face  of  the  fluids 

La  Place's  nebula  hypothesis  is  now  generally 
accepted  by  scholars.  It  is  emphatically  a 
speculation  and  cannot  be  demonstrated  by  ob- 
servation or  established  by  mathematical  calcu- 
lation. Yet  it  is  sustained  by  all  the  evidence 
that  is  attainable;  it  satisfies  the  conditions  of 
our  solar  system,  and  is  corroborated  by  the 
phases  through  which  other  systems  are  now 
seen  to  be  passing. 

There  are  very  remarkable  features  in  the  solar 
system  which  point  unmistakably  to  a  common 
origin  of  all  its  members.  These  features  are 
the  following,  first — the  sun  rotates  on  its  axis 
in  a  certain  direction;  second,  all  the  major  and 
minor  planets  numbering  more  than  two  hundred, 
revolve  around   the  sun  in  the  same  direction; 

39 


40  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

third,  the  planets  also  rotate  on  their  axis  in 
that  same  direction;  fourth,  the  satellites  revolve 
around  their  planets,  also  in  that  same  direction, 
with  the  exception  of  the  satellites  of  Uranus; 
fifth,  all  these  bodies,  with  one  exception,  which 
can  otherwise  be  explained,  have  their  orbits 
on  nearly  the  same  plane,  instead  of  flying  about 
the  sun  in  every  possible  plane  as  we  might  have 
expected. 

To  put  it  in  another  way,  so  that  the  uni- 
ty of  the  system  may  be  the  better  appreci- 
ated— two  hundred  planetary  bodies  revolve  on 
nearly  the  same  plane;  these  are  all  going  the 
same  way,— the  satellites  revolve  around  their 
planets  in  the  same  direction  that  the  planets 
revolve  around  the  sun;  the  planets  revolve 
around  the  sun  in  the  same  direction  as  they 
rotate  on  their  own  axes;  and  they  rotate  on 
their  own  axes  in  the  same  direction  as  the  sun 
rotates  on  his  axis.  Could  all  this  be  by  chance? 
It  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  probability  of 
this  happening  by  chance  is  as  the  ratio  of  one, 
to  a  number  containing  sixty  figures.  There 
must  therefore  be  some  explanation  for  this  uni- 
formity. 

La  Place  supposed  that  all  the  material  in  our 
planetary  system  once  formed  one   vast   central 


PRIMITIVE  CONDITION  OF  MATTER  41 

mass,  and  according  to  the  law  of  the  Dissipa- 
tion of  Energy,  that  mass  must  have  been  at  a 
temperature  very  much  higher  than  that  of  the 
present  sun. 

This  stupendous  nebulous  mass  had  a  revolu- 
tion on  its  axis.  As  time  passed,  this  nebula 
cooled  and  contracted;  but  the  outer  rim,  owing 
to  its  immense  diameter,  at  least  as  large  as  the 
diameter  of  the  orbit  of  the  outermost  planet, 
— this  outer  rim  was  whirling  so  rapidly  that  its 
centrifugal  force  overcame  the  contracting 
force,  and  a  ring  of  nebulous  matter  flew  off  and 
went  on  spinning  around  the  sun  in  the  same 
direction  it  had  been  going  before.  If  this  ring 
had  cooled  and  contracted  evenly,  it  would 
have  remained  a  ring  like  those  still  spinning 
around  Saturn,  but  the  outer  surface  radiated  its 
heat  into  space,  while  the  inner  surface  of  the 
ring  continued  to  receive  heat  from  the  central 
sun,  so  that  it  cooled  unevenly.  Contraction  was 
therefore  irregular;  a  strain  began  to  be  exert- 
ed which  at  last  became  so  great  that  the 
ring  was  broken  up  and  thrown  into  a  revolv- 
ing spiral,  that  finally  settled  down  into  a  globe, 
which  became  the  outer  planet.  This  planet 
continued  to  cool  and  contract  just  as  the  sun 
had  done,  until  it  too,  threw   off  a   ring   which 


12  IS  MOSBS  SCIENTIFIC? 

settled  down  into  its  revolving  satellite.  Another 
ring  was  thrown  off  from  the  sun  in  the  same 
way,  which  became  the  next  planet,  which,  also 
in  turn,  evolved  its  satellites.  Thus  the  process 
went  on,  until  the  sun  became  so  far  reduced  in 
size  that  it  was  able  to  hurl  off  no  more  rings. 

This  theory  of  La  Place  is  also  confirmed  by 
the  solar  spectroscope,  which  shows  that  the 
sun  contains  in  fusion  the  same  elements  which 
are  found  on  our  earth,  thus  indicating  a  com- 
mon origin. 

And  it  is  still  further  confirmed  by  approach- 
ing the  subject  from  the  opposite  direction.  It 
is  known  that  the  sun's  diameter  is  shortening 
at  the  rate  of  four  miles  per  century,  and  yet 
owing  to  another  law,  which  need  not  be  dis- 
cussed here,  the  sun  is  not  sensibly  losing  heat. 
When  Columbus  discovered  America,  the  sun 
was  twenty  miles  larger  in  diameter  than  now; 
at  the  time  of  Christ,  it  was  eighty  miles  larger. 
Carry  back  this  reckoning,  say  to  the  time  when 
the  Colorado  river  was  beginning  to  cut  its  im- 
mense channel,  and  the  sun's  diameter  must  have 
been  vastly  larger  than  now.  Carry  it  still  farther 
back,  and  the  sun  must  have  been  as  large  as 
the  whole  diameter  of  the  orbit  of  Mercury,  and 
that  planet  must  then  have  been  in    the    bosom 


PRIMITII^E  CONDITION  OF  MATTER  43 

of  its  parent.  Carry  it  still  farther  back,  and 
the  sun's  size  equalled  the  whole  orbit  of  Venus, 
and  that  planet  was  still  unborn.  So  this 
reasoning  will  carry  us  back  to  the  far  ago,  when 
the  sun  must  have  included  the  whole  space 
within  the  orbit  of  the  outermost  planet,  and  all 
the  bodies  of  our  solar  system  were  parts  of  that 
central  mass,  at  a  vastly  higher  temperature  and 
in  a  far  more  rarified  condition. 

This  hypothesis  of  La  Place  is  still  further 
corroborated  by  actual  observation  of  the 
heavens.  By  means  of  his  great  telescope,  Sir 
William  Herschell  has  found  faint,  thin  nebulae 
in  the  condition,  in  which  the  sun  is  supposed 
to  have  once  been;  he  has  found  other  nebulae 
where  there  seems  to  be  a  faint  nucleus,  and 
still  others  where  the  nucleus  is  a  brilliant  star- 
like point.  Herschell  thought  he  was  thus  able 
to  view  the  actual  stages  through  which  our  sun 
passed  from  a  mass  of  glowing  vapor,  until  it 
had  condensed  down  to  a  star.  The  verdict  of 
science  is  thus  expressed  by  Prof.  Newcomb  of 
Washington  Observatory — "At  the  present  time 
we  can  only  say  that  the  nebula  hypothesis  is 
indicated  by  the  general  tendencies  of  the  laws 
of  nature;  that  it  has  not  been  proved  to  be 
inconsistent  with  any  fact;  that  it    is    almost    a 


41  IS  MOSRS  SCIENTIFIC? 

necessary  consequence  of  the  only  theory  by 
which  we  can  account  for  the  origin  and  con- 
servation of  the  sun's  heat." 

Accepting  now  the  truth  of  the  nebula  hypoth- 
esis, which  Prof.  Mitchell  says  "is  the  boldest 
thought  ever  conceived  by  the  human  mind," 
we  ask — is  there  any  conflict  between  it  and  the 
record  of  Moses.-* 

The  record  now  proceeds  to  make  three  pro- 
foundly scientific  and  far  reaching  statements; 
first — that  the  earth  was  originally  in  just  that 
condition  contemplated  by  the  nebular  hypothe- 
sis viz.  it  was — "tohuvabohu — desolateness  and 
emptiness."  Second — but  to  go  still  farther  back, 
"before  the  mountains  were  brought  forth  or 
ever  Thou  hadst  formed  the  earth  and  the 
(starry)  world" — then,  only  a  fluid  filled  the 
abyss  of  space,  and  this  fluid  was  quiescent  and 
therefore  dark.  Third — original  motion  was  im- 
parted to  this  universal,  etherial  fluid  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.  These  are  profoundly  scientific 
utterances,  let  us  see  how  they  are  expressed  in 
the  record,  and  how  fully  they  are  corroborated. 

There  are  no  words  in  the  abrupt  and  practi- 
cal Hebrew  that  could  better  describe  that 
nebulous  condition  of  the  earth  than — "tohu  va 
bohu."       In    Is   4i;29   "tohu"  is    translated— 


PRIMITIVE  CONDITION  OF  MATTER  45 

"confusion;"  4419 — "vanity."  In  Is  34;  11 
"tohu  va  bohu"  are  translated — "And  He  shall 
stretch  out  upon  it  the  line  of  confusion  and  the 
stone  of  emptiness.''''  Confusion  and  emptiness, 
or  emptiness  and  desolateness  was  the  first  con- 
dition of  the  earth,  says  Moses.  La  Place  him- 
self could  not  have  described  that  condition  more 
accurately.  The  earth  was  then  in  the  bosom 
of  the  sun  at  an  exceedingly  high  temperature, 
and  consequently  so  attenuated  as  to  be  \\ell 
expressed  by  "vanity"  or  "confusion;"  so  far 
from  its  present  solid  condition,  that  it  could 
not  be  better  described  than  by  "emptiness"  or 
"desolateness."  If  the  nebular  hypothesis  satis- 
fies the  conditions  of  our  solar  system,  much 
more  does  it  satisfy  the  conditions  expressed  in 
"tohu  va  bohu." 

The  second  statement  describes  a  condition  of 
things  even  still  farther  back.  Says  Moses — 
tohu  va  bohu  was  the  first  condition  of  the  earth, 
but  there  was  a  time  long  anterior  to  this  when 
there  was  no  earth,  and  nothing  but  a  "fluid" 
filled  the  abyss. 

The  word  translated — "waters"  is  from  a  root 
meaning — "to  be  fluid."  Of  course  the  most 
common  form  of  fluid  was  water,  and  so  the 
word  ordinarily  came  to  mean — water;  but  the 


46  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

record  is  going  down  to  the  foundations  of  things, 
and  to  get  at  the  meaning  we  must  learn  the 
very  roots  of  the  words.  It  could  not  have  meant 
"waters"  here,  for  the  earth's  temperature  was 
such  that  no  water  could  have  formed.  "The 
deep,"  upon  which  the  darkness  rested,  could  not 
have  meant  the  ocean,  because  the  ocean  was 
not  formed  until  the  second  day;  nor  could  it 
have  meant  our  visible  heavens,  because  all  was 
dark;  it  was  the  abyss  of  space,  which  as  yet 
contained  only  fluid  matter.  Now  giving  to  the 
words  their  root  meaning,  read  again  the  record. 
"And  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  abyss; 
and  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of 
the  fluid."  The  second  scientific  statement  is 
therefore,  that  etherial  fluid  filled  all  space,  and 
before  the  Spirit  of  God  gave  to  it  its  motion,  it 
was  in  a  quiescent  state,  and  therefore  dark.  Is 
this  pregnant  statement  born  out  by  science? 
Was  matter  once  quiescent,  without  motion.? 
According  to  the  law  of  the  Dissipation  of 
Energy,  just  that  condition  of  matter  must  have 
existed;  there  must  have  been  a  time  when  there 
was  no  motion,  because  energy  is  being  con- 
stantly dissipated,  force  is  being  used  up  and 
therefore  could  not  have  been  eternal.  We  V 
know  that  the  clock  of  the  universe  is    running 


PRIMlTiyE  CONDITION  OF  MATTER  47 

down;  the  heavenly  bodies  are  losing  their 
motion  and  sometime  will  have  wholly  lost  it; 
the  rate  of  the  earth's  rotation  has  been  much 
more  rapid  than  now;  the  friction  of  the  tidal 
wave  will  in  time  stop  the  diurnal  motion  of  the 
earth;  the  sun  is  slowly  losing  its  heat.  How- 
ever small  these  retarding  forces  or  however 
small  the  loss  of  heat,  yet  if  they  had  operated 
from  eternity,  the  momentum  of  the  earth  and 
the  heat  of  the  sun  would  have  been  exhausted 
long  ago. 

This  retarding  influence  is  seen  most  conspic- 
uously in  the  case  of  Encke's  comet  which  has 
fallen  behind  in  its  revolution  two  days  and  six- 
teen hours  since  1789.  This  quantity  looks 
small  for  a  whole  century,  but  a  small  fraction 
of  loss  will  amount  to  much,  in  the  course  of  long 
ages.  In  23,000  years,  this  comet  will  have  lost 
half  of  its  velocity.  Similar  retardation  has  been 
fully  established  in  the  cases  of  at  least  three  other 
comets.  The  consequences  of  this  admission  are 
stupendous  beyond  conception ;  it  records  the  de- 
cree of  doom  upon  our  solar  system.  Watson 
says — "If  we  grant  that  the  retardation  of  the 
comets  arises  from  the  existence  of  an  etherial 
fluid,  the  total  obliteration  of  the  solar  system  is 
to  be  the   final    result."     Helmholtz    says: — "A 


48  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

time  will  come  when  the  comet  will  strike  the 
sun,  and  a  similar  end  threatens  all  the  planets, 
although  after  a  time,  the  length  of  which  baffles 
our  imagination  to  conceive  it."  Winchell  says 
— "Not  for  perpetuity,  is  written  upon  every  lin- 
eament of  the  solar  system.  We  contemplate 
the  matter  of  the  system  aggregated  into  a  cold 
and  blackened  mass  at  the  center;  no  more  sun, 
no  more  planet,  no  more  satellite,  no  more 
comet  or  metonte  or  zodiacal  luminosity, but  win- 
ter, and  the  silence  of  death,  and  the  darkness  of 
Nature's  midnight,  penetrated  only  by  starlight, 
whose  maternal  source  may  have  been  blotted 
out — a  solitary  grave  upon  a  distant  plain  in  the 
midst  of  the  howling  desolation  of  an  arctic 
winter.''  If  mortality  is  stamped  upon  every 
thing;  if  there  must  be  an  end  of  all,  there 
surely  must  have  been  a  beginning;  there  must 
have  been  a  time  when  there  was  no  motion, 
and  this  first  clear  intimation  of  scripture  of 
the  primitive  condition  of  matter  must  have  been 
true. 

At  once  the  laws  of  physics  step  in  and  assure 
us,  if  that  first  statement  was  true,  then  the 
second  also  was  true;  if  there  was  no  motion, 
then  "darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep," 
for  light  is  the  result  of  motion.    Moses  tells  us  in 


PRlMlTiyE  CONDITION  OF  MATTER  49 


the  next  verse,  that  after  motion  had  been  im- 
parted to  this  fluid  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  then  Hght 
began  to  be,  and  no  physicist  could  have  stated 
it  more  scientifically.  But  as  yet  he  is  speaking 
of  an  earlier  time;  then  light  could  not  have 
been,  but  darkness  only,  for  there  was  no 
motion.  The  qualities  of  matter  had  not  yet 
been  imparted;  there  was  no  chemical  action, 
no  attraction,  no  electricities;  all  was  lifeless 
and  still  as  the  grave,  before  activity  had  been 
given  to  dead  matter,  and  all  was  dark. 

But  whence  came  original  motion?  Ask  science 
and  she  remains  dumb;  ask  revelation  and  she 
promptly  answers — "the  Spirit  of  God  moved 
upon  the  face  of  the  fluid."  The  Spirit  of  God 
is  the  source  of  all  power,  natural  and  super- 
natural. When  the  Spirit  of  God  came  upon 
the  waiting  disciples,  then  came  upon  them — 
not  faith,  not  joy,  but  the  promise  was — "Then 
shall  ye  receive  power,  diiteY  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  come  upon  you."  And  likewise,  after  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  had  come  upon  the  waiting  fluid 
matter,  the  same  miracle  again — and  what  stu- 
pendous results!  Then  universal  motion;  then 
atom  approached  atom  and  attraction  began ; 
then  coalescence  of  atoms  and  chemistry  began; 
then    attraction    and   repulsion,  and    electricity 


50  75  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


began;  then  accelerated  motion  and  heat  began ; 
then  persistence  and  increase  of  motion,  and 
light  began.  Then  the  vast,  vast  universe, 
whose  wheels  had  not  begun,  had  its  great  belt 
connected  with  the  fly-wheel  of  original  power, 
and  all  that  universe  of  God  began  to  be  alive, 
and  to  hum  with  busy  activity.  Here  is  the 
origin  of  power;  the  source  of  motion  is  not 
within  rnatter,  for  the  dead  cannot  make  itself 
move  and  live;  the  Spirit  of  God,  in  natural  as 
in  supernatural  realms,  comes  upon  its  subjects, 
and  power  is  the  result.  Now  notice  how  care- 
fully the  record  is  worded.  It  does  not  say  that 
the  Spirit  of  God  moved  in  matter,  or  was  im- 
manent in  matter,  for  that  would  mean  panthe- 
ism; but  the  explanation  is  rigidly  accurate. 
The  Spirit  of  God  moves  fel  penay)  "upon  the 
faces  of  the  fluid,"  for  He  is  outside  of  and 
above  matter;  He  moved  upon  it  from  without, 
just  as  the  disciples  were  to  "receive  power /;>'^;« 
on  higJi.'^'' 

But  we  must  study  these  wonderful  words 
more  closely  still;  if  there  is  not  verbal  in- 
spiration here,  it  looks  very  like  it,  for  the 
words  have  been  chosen  with  a  scien- 
tific accuracy  which  no  man,  of  any  period 
previous  to  this    scientific    century,  could    have 


PRIMITIVE  CONDITION  OF  M/ITTER  51 

chosen.  What  kind  of  motion  did  the  Spirit  of 
God  impart  to  the  original  fluid  matter?  We 
must  look  elsewhere  to  learn  what  Moses  meant. 
The  word  "moved,"  describing  this  act  of  the 
Spirit,  in  Jer.  2319  is  translated— "All  my  bones 
shake ;  I  am  like  a  drunken  man  and  like  a  man 
whom  wine  hath  overcome,  because  of  the  Lord 
and  because  of  the  words  of  his  holiness."  See 
a  drunken  man  trembling,  every  nerve  quivering 
with  the  stimulant  of  alchohol;  it  is  this  quiver- 
ing motion  says  Moses  which  the  Spirit  of  God 
imparted  to  the  fluid.  But  better  yet,  it  is  used 
in  Deut.  32;  11.  "As  an  eagle  stirreth  up  her 
nest,  fliittcrctli  over  her  young,  spreadeth  abroad 
her  wings  &c."  What  kind  of  motion  would  be 
imparted  to  the  atmosphere  by  the  fluttering 
wing  of  an  eagle  which  hovers  over  her  nest  to 
incite  her  brood  to  venture  forth  and  try  their 
own  wings?  No  figure  could  better  suggest 
vibratory  motion  than  this;  the  air  would  vibrate 
by  the  impact  of  her  wings,  and  Moses  says  it 
was  this  quivering,  vibrating  motion  which  the 
Spirit  of  God  imparted  to  original  matter.  Now 
let  science  open  wide  her  eyes  in  astonishment 
and  ask,  as  the  Jews  asked  concerning  Christ — 
"Whence  hath  this  man  this  wisdom?"  What 
could  Moses  have  known   of  vibratory   motion, 


53  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

when  this  is  the  great  discovery  of  this  age,  and 
wasnot  fully  accepted  until  after  the  middle  of  this 
century? 

The  diagram  will  explain  the  latest  known 
of  vibratory  motion.  All  energy  is  trans- 
mitted by  vibrations.  The  lower  vibrations, 
those  affecting  the  ear  and  producing  sound,  are 
transmitted  through  air  and  other  ponderable 
bodies.  For  the  faster  waves  of  electricity, 
heat,  and  light,  it  is  necessary  to  assume  the 
existence  of  ether — which  may  now  be  consid- 
ered fairly  proved.  No  sound,  that  is  produced 
by  less  than  i6  vibrations  per  second,  is  audible 
to  the  human  ear;  4000  vibrations  per  second 
constitute  the  upper  limit  of  music ;  38, 000  vibra- 
tions bound  the  upper  limit  of  sound.  The  form  of 
energy  produced  by  the  next  higher  number  of 
vibrations  is  electricity,  but  as  Hertz  has  shown, 
we  have  no  sense  to  correspond  with  this.  Prof. 
De  Motte  has  measured  the  number  of  vibrations 
which  produce  electricity,  and  finds  them  to  be 
ninety-five  millions  per  second. 

The  ladder  now  takes  a  large  step  before  we 
reach  the  next  form  of  energy  of  which  we  are 
cognizant,  which  is  heat.  Between  the  upper 
limit  of  sound  and  electricity  there  must  be 
many  forms  of  energy,  as  well  as  between  elec- 


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54  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

tricity  and  heat,  but  we  have  not  senses  enough 
to  correspond  with  them.  Dark  heat  is  formed 
by  one  hundred  trilHons  of  vibrations,  and  is 
detected  by  the  sense  of  touch.  As  the  vibra- 
tions rise  in  number,  hght  is  produced  with  which 
we  correspond  by  the  sense  of  sight. 

So  we  find  that  all  energy  is  caused  by  vibra- 
tion. That  initial  vibratory  motion  which  was 
imparted  to  original  matter,  says  Moses,  was  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.  Here  again  is  a  philosophy 
as  profound  as  the  universe.  Original  motion 
was  imparted  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  it  was 
vibratory.  It  was  stated  so  quietly  and  simply, 
that  only  this  scientific  age  saw  it,  just  as  uni- 
versal gravitation  had  been  expressed  and  illus- 
trated by  all  that  the  eye  of  man  could  rest 
upon,  but  it  was  not  detected  nor  understood 
until  the  progress  of  the  ages  had  produced  a 
Newton.  This  surprise  of  the  nineteenth  century 
has  been  anticipated  by  Moses  for  more  than 
3, 500  years;  in  a  few  strokes  of  his  inspired  pen, 
he  traces  a  whole  galaxy  of  science  and  philos- 
ophy. It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Moses  knew 
all  this,  nor  ever  even  knew  that  vibratory  motion 
existed  at  all;  only  the  inspiring  Spirit  could 
have  led  him  to  choose  the  exact  scientific  word 
which     would     describe     the     motion     which 


PRIMlTiyB  CONDITION  OF  MATTER  55 

the  spirit  of  God  impressed  upon  matter. 
Let  us  now  stop  to  recapitulate  what  we 
have  already  found  and  ask  whether  Moses 
is  so  far,  rigidly  scientific?  He  tells  us 
that  there  was  a  First  Cause,  His  name  is 
Elohim;  that  matter  is  not  eternal,  but  had 
a  beginning;  that  matter  is  not  self  originating, 
God  created  it;  that  the  true  order  is  "the 
heavens  and  the  earth,"  for  the  earth  is  not  the 
center  of  the  system  as  was  supposed;  that  the 
earth  was  originally  "desolateness  and  empty- 
ness,"  as  contemplated  by  the  nebular  hypothe- 
sis; that  matter  was  at  first  in  a  fluid  form  and 
filled  the  abyss;  that  there  was  no  motion,  but 
all  was  quiescent,  as  required  by  the  law  of  the 
Dissipation  of  Energy;  that  therefore  "darkness 
was  on  the  face  of  the  abyss;"  that  motion  did 
not  originate  itself;  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
the  source  of  all  motion  and  force;  that  this  force 
was  not  immanent  in  matter,  but  "moved  upon 
the  face  of  the  fiuid"  from  without;  that  the 
motion  imparted  to  matter  was  vibratory,  like 
that  imparted  to  the  air  by  the  fluttering  wing 
of  an  eagle.  Here  are  twelve  profoundly  scien- 
tific utterances  in  two  verses,  which  are  funda- 
mental to  all  that  is  to  follow;  they  are  as  far- 
reaching  as  time,  as  wide  as  space,  as  reliable  as 


56  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

truth.  They  are  the  very  core  of  philosophy; 
they  are  the  working  theories,  which  science 
may  take  and  use  in  endless  application. 

We  might  suppose  that  one  or  two  of  these 
great  principles  could  have  been  discovered  or 
guessed  by  some  genius,  like  those  who  have 
shone  out  through  the  long  dark  past,  like  a  star 
of  the  first  magnitude;  but  by  all  the  chances 
of  probability,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for 
any  man  or  any  single  age,  to  have  discovered  a 
whole  constellation  of  scientific  truths  like  those 
which  form  the  galaxy  of  these  two  verses. 
Indeed  it  has  taken  all  the  ages  since  the  world 
began  until  now,  to  have  wrought  out,  so  as  to 
clearly  state,  most  of  these  scientific  doctrines 
which  are  embraced  in  the  opening  sentences  of 
the  Bible.  The  world  has  not  until  now  been 
able  even  to  read  them,  though  they  have  been 
here  expressed  in  words  since  the  record  left  the 
pen  of  the  inspired  writer. 


^ 


CHAPTER  III. 

FIRST  CREATIVE  DAY. 

"And  God  said — let  there  be  light,  and  there  was 
light.  And  God  saw  the  light  that  it  was  good;  and 
God  divided  between  the  light  and  betweefi  the  dark- 
ness. And  God  called  the  light — day,  and  the  dark- 
ness He  called — night;  and  the  evening  was,  and  the 
morning  was — day  one. 

The  first  chapter  of  Genesis  contains  the 
material  decalogue,  as  the  twentieth  chapter  of 
;  Genesis  contains  the  moral  decalogue;  in  the 
one  are  the  ten  commandments  for  nature,  and 
in  the  other  are  the  ten  commandments  for  man. 
Ten  times  God  "spake  and  it  was  done,  He  com- 
manded and  it  stood  fast;"  ten  times  occurs  the 
phrase — wayomer  Elohim — "And  God  said." 
The  Jews  still  call  this  chapter — "The  ten  words 
of  Jehovah."  These  two  decalogues  contain 
the  germs  of  all  natural  law  and  of  all  moral  law. 

Jurists,  statesmen,    legislators,    moralists  find 

the  seed  of  all  moral    and    ethical    law    in    that 

grand  epitome  which  begins  with  the  same  phrase 

that  announced  the  law  to   nature — ^^And  God 

5? 


58  /5  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

Spake  all  these  words,  saying  I  am  the  Lord  thy 
God;  thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before 
me."  Likewise  philosopher  and  scientist  are 
finding  the  seeds  of  scientific  law — in  that 
other  grand  epitome — "And  God  said  Let  there 
be — and  it  was  so." 

The  first  chapter  of  the  Bible,  and  the  last 
chapter  of  the  Bible  cast  a  level  beam  of  light 
over  vast  and  unnumbered  ages,  the  one  over 
the  darkness  of  the  past,  the  other  over  the 
darkness  of  the  future.  At  one  end  stands 
one  inspired  seer  and  looks  back,  far  back  to 
the  beginning,  where  time  itself  shades  off  and 
melts  into  eternity ;  at  the  other  end  stands 
the-  other  mspired  seer  and  looks  forward, 
far  forward  to  the  end  when  "time  shall  be  no 
more,"  and  again  shades  off  and  melts  into 
eternity;  and  between  the  beginning  of  the  one 
and  the  end  of  the  other,  occur  all  that  relates 
to  the  history  of  the  world  and  of  man. 

As  will  be  seen  by  reference  to  the  chart,  the 
first  chapter  divides  itself  into  two  trilogies,  the 
one  giving  the  history  of  inorganic  creation,  the 
other  giving  the  history  of  organic  creation.  The 
respective  days  in  each  division  correspond  to 
each  other  in  a  general  way.  On  the  first  and 
iourth  days,  light   appears;  the    one    is  univer- 


FIFTH  CRE/ITiyE  DAY  69 


60  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

sally  diffused,  cosmic  light,  the  other  is  solar 
light  radiated  from  the  luminary;  on  the  second 
day  the  expanse  of  heaven  appears,  in  which  the 
birds  of  the  fifth  day  are  to  fly,  and  the  waters 
form  the  sea,  in  which  the  animals  of  the  fifth  day 
are  to  live,  for  these  are  aquatic.  On  the  third 
and  sixth  days,  two  works  are  performed,  each 
corresponding  to  the  other,  and  both  days  intro- 
duce life,  the  one   natural,  the   other   spiritual. 

God  is  here  calling  into  being,  by  His  own 
free,  almighty  will,  things  which  before  had  no 
existence.  Let  us  not  fail  to  notice  how  the 
persons  of  the  Trinity  at  once  appear  and  per- 
form their  respective  works;  Elohim  expresses 
the  absolute,  unconditioned;  the  creative  act  is 
manifested  by  the  Word  and  executed  by  the 
Spirit,  as  in  all  the  purposes  of  grace. 

This  creation  is  successive — carried  on  through 
the  six  days;  it  is  progressive,  beginning  with 
the  lowest  element — matter,  and  continuing  by 
plant  and  animal  hfe,  until  it  terminates  in  man, 
made  in  the  divine  image.  At  each  successive 
stage,  there  is  a  new  divine  impulse,  but  this  is 
exerted  each  time  on  materials  already  existing; 
the  forces  of  nature  already  at  work,  had  their 
part  in  bringing  about  the  end  desired. 

Matter  itself   is   created   out   of   nothing,  but 


FIRST  CREATIVB  DAY  CI 

beginning  with  that  as  a  basis,  each  step  is  an 
advance,  and  the  materials  already  formed, 
assist  in  producing  the  next  higher  results.  The 
fluid  matter  existing,  the  Spirit  gives  it  a  new 
impulse,  and  vibratory  motion  is  the  result; 
vibratory  motion  existing,  from  it  the  command 
is,  to  produce  light;  the  dry  land  existing,  anew 
impulse  is  given  and  plants  are  produced; 
waters  existing,  a  new  impulse  is  given  and 
fishes  come  forth.  This  is  progressive  and  rigidly 
scientific;  from  the  lower  to  the  higher,  from 
the  simpler  to  the  more  complex,  this  is  the 
order  of  Moses,  and  this  science  has  discovered 
to  be  the  universal  law. 

And  everywhere  government  by  law,  becomes 
prominent.  Every  part  of  creation  has  its  own 
specific  function  to  fulfill;  the  light  is  to  divide 
the  day  from  the  night;  the  expanse  is  to  sep- 
arate the  waters  above  from  the  waters  below; 
the  luminaries  are  to  be  for  signs  and  for  seasons, 
and  for  days  and  years;  the  herbs  are  to  be  for 
food  for  man  and  beast.  The  command  assign- 
ing their  functions  once  given,  are  never  re- 
peated; their  law  is  permanently  fixed,  from 
which  nothing  can  transgress.  There  is  no  blind 
groping  after  its  proper  office;  everything  falls 
into  its   place   and   so   continues.      This    too    is 


62  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

highly  scientific;  the  prevalence  of  law  through- 
out every  department  of  nature  is  the  best 
established  of  all  the  large  generalizations  of 
science. 

The  great  principle  of  subordination  of  the 
lower  to  the  higher  is  also  most  completely  rati- 
fied by  science;  each  step  in  creation  is  upward 
as  well  as  onward.  When  the  successive  stages 
receive  the  divine  commendation — "and  God  saw 
that  it  was  good" — it  is  not  for  itself  alone  that 
it  receives  this  seal,  but  especially  is  it  good  as 
a  preparation  for  the  next  higher  step.  Light 
is  good,  not  only  in  itself  but  as  a  preparation 
for  all  that  is  to  follow;  earth  and  sea  are  good 
as  a  preparation  to  their  being  inhabited. 

The  thing  first  needed  is  created  first,  because 
there  is  everywhere  a  principle  of  dependence  of 
the  later  and  higher,  upon  the  earlier  and  lower. 
Animals  depend  upon  the  plants  for  food  and 
not  the  reverse;  plants  depend  upon  the  soil; 
plants  and  animals  alike  depend  upon  the  atmos- 
phere. And  last  of  all,  man  appears  when  all 
necessary  preparation  has  been  made  for  him, 
for  he  is  the  crown  of  creation,  the  apex  up  to 
^  which  this  great  pyramid  has  been  shaping. 
And  all  things  are  subordinate  to  him;  they  are 
all  placed  under  his  dominion.      Nothing  can  be 


FIRST  CREATINE  DAY  63 


more  scientific  than  this  principle  of  subordina- 
tion of  the  lower  to  the  higher,  which  runs 
throughout  the  entire  record,  for  the  universe  is 
one  organized  whole,  in  which  every  member 
depends  upon  that  below, and  is  a  preparation 
for  that  above.  And  even  when  we  reach  the 
apex,  we  still  find  that  man  has  not  come  to 
rest ;  while  he  is  to  use  all  things  for  his  purpose, 
yet  he  himself  is  not  to  live  for  a  selfish  enjoy- 
ment, but  for  a  use  above  himself. 

Nature  now  receives  her  first  commandment 
— "And  God  said — Let  there  be  light,  and  there 
was  light."  Let  us  recall  what  was  said  at  the 
close  of  the  preceding  chapter.  The  Spirit  of 
God  has  just  imparted  motion  to  this  f^uid  mass 
which  fills  the  abyss  of  space;  we  saw  that  it 
was  vibratory  motion  which  had  been  given; 
now  ask  science  what  would  necessarily  follow.? 
She  replies,  after  motion  there  would  be  first 
heat  and  then  light,  according  to  the  great 
modern  discovery  of  the  law  of  the  correlation 
of  Forces:  "and  it  was  so." 

We  must  give  the  author  credit  for  the  mis- 
takes which  he  avoids,  as  well  as  for  the  scientific 
truths  he  pronounces.  How  easy  it  would  have 
been  to  have  slipped  in  the  sentence — "and  the 
Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the   fluid" 


64  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

— AFTER  the  command  to  the  hght,  but  if  he  had 
done  so,  he  would  have  been  immediately  con- 
victed of  error.  He  places  the  creation  of  light 
after  vibratory  motion,  and  what  is  just  as  re- 
markable, three  whole  days  before  the  account  of 
the  sun.  How  could  any  one,  unacquainted 
with  latest  science  have  known  that  there  could 
be  light  without  the  sun?  The  first  evidence 
that  creation  had  really  begun,  was  a  flash  of 
comical  light  darting  through  the  black  abyss; 
afterward  nebulte  would  form  to  condense  into 
revolving  suns. 

And  now  occurs  another  statement  that  could 
not  have  been  known  by  man  until  the  last  half 
of  this  century.  Not  until  the  spectroscope  had 
been  invented  could  any  one  have  said — "and 
God  saw  that  it  was  good."  How  could  light  be 
good  and  adapted  to  its  purpose,  until  the  sun 
had  appeared.-*  This  is  a  statement  of  pure 
science,  for  light  is  found  to  be  good  the  moment 
it  appears.  The  spectroscope  shows  that  light, 
proceeding  from  a  nebula  or  cloud  of  fire  mist, 
has  the  actinic  qualities  and  properties  of  solar 
light. 

And  still  another  scientific  accuracy  appears 
where  no  one  but  an  inspired  man  or  a  modern 
scientist  could  have   made   it.      Light   is  called 


FIRST  CREATIVE  DAY  05 

good,  before  it  is  said  that  "God  divided  the 
light  from  the  darkness."  Ancient  philosophy 
regarded  light  and  darkness  as  distinct  sub- 
stances, as  the  Persians  regarded  good  and  evil  to 
be  two  distinct  powers,  whose  demons  Ormuzd 
and  Ahriman  were  ever  contending.  Any  one 
else  would  have  understood  the  dividing  the  light 
from  the  darkness,  as  separating  the  good  from 
the  bad,  straining  out  the  darkness  from  the 
light,  and  so  leaving  it  good,  and  would  therefore 
have  reserved  the  divine  commendation  until 
after  that  dividing  process  had  been  completed. 
But  Moses  says  the  light  was  good,  before  God 
h  ad  divided  it  from  the  darkness,  and  he  is 
scientifically  correct. 

But  is  the  statement  that  "God  divided  be- 
tween the  light  and  between  the  darkness," 
correct  at  the  point  where  it  is  introduced.'*  Let 
us  recall  La  Place's  nebula  hypothesis,  and  see 
how  fully  it  corroborates  this  statement.  When 
first  thrown  off  from  the  sun,  the  earth  was  a 
luminous  body  itself;  it  was  a  burning  star,  like 
the  sun,  but  much  smaller.  Its  satellite,  the 
moon  received  most  of  its  light  and  heat  from 
the  earth,  as  the  earth  now  does  from  the  sun. 
Being  much  smaller,  the  earth  cooled  far  more 
rapidly  than  the  sun,  so  that  in  course    of   long 


66  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC. 


time,  it  ceased  to  be  a  luminous  body;  its  fires 
flickered  and  died  out;  a  solid  crust  formed  over 
the  glowing  interior,  and  the  earth  became  a  spent 
star,  no  longer  visible  by  its  own  light. 

Right  there,  when  the  earth  had  lost  its  lumin- 
osity and  began  to  be  a  dark  opaque  body,  the 
Creator  actually  did  divide  between  the  light 
and  the  darkness;  day  and  night  did  then  begin. 
Of  course  the  earth  had  always  rotated  on  its 
axis  since  it  had  come  forth  in  the  sun's  birth 
pangs,  but  as  the  side  of  the  earth  opposite  from 
the  sun,  still  shone  with  its  own  luminosity, 
there  could  be  no  night.  But  as  soon  as  the 
crust  had  formed  and  the  earth  was  no  longer 
giving  out  light  from  its  own  fires,  then  there 
was  night  on  the  side  that  was  turned  away  from 
the  sun,  as  now,  and  day  and  night  did  begin. 
"And  God  called  the  light — Day,  and  the  dark- 
ness He  called — Night;"  Moses  is  correct  in 
assigning  the  beginning  of  day  and  night  to  that 
first  creative  day,  that  is,  to  the  time  when  the 
earth  had  so  far  cooled  as  to  lose  its  own  lumin- 
osity. The  next  creative  act,  the  clearing  away 
of  the  expanse  so  as  to  form  the  open  starry 
heaven,  could  not  have  occurred  until  this  cooling 
had  taken  place  as  we  shall  see  in  the  next 
chapter. 


FIRST  CREATINE  DAY  67 

What  was  meant  by  the  expression — "and  the 
evening  was  and  morning  was — day  one"?  This 
could  not  mean  a  natural  day,  for  that  would 
have  been  expressed  by  night  and  day,  instead 
of  evening  and  morning.  It  could  not  refer  to 
the  result  of  the  earth's  diurnal  rotation,  for  that 
had  already  been  stated  and  correctly  named. 
Evening  is  the  natural  close  of  a  day's  work; 
morning  is  the  opening  of  another  day's  work. 
The  evening  and  the  morning  therefore,  were 
simply  the  marking  off  of  God's  creative  periods; 
this  was  the  announcement  of  periodic  cessation 
from  labor  between  each  of  the  creative  days,  as 
a  whole  day  of  rest  from  creative  work  followed 
the  six  days.  Man  should  need  not  only  a  whole 
day  in  seven  for  rest  from  labor,  but  a  period  of 
rest  between  each  one  of  those  six  days,  and  here 
God  sets  the  example  to  him  who  was  to  be 
created  in  the  divine  image. 

Whether  geology  will  ever  be  able  to  identify 
these  periodic  rests  from  labor,  or  not,  cannot  be 
foretold,  but  it  is  not  necessary  that  it  should, 
any  more  than  it  is  necessary  that  geology  shall 
tell  us  how  long  God's  creative  days  were. 

The  first  product  of  the  creative  work  is  light. 
Let  the  Spirit  of  God  come  in  contact  with 
matter,  and  light  is  the  result,  good  light.     The 


08  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

same  great  marvel  and  miracle  takes  place  in 
the  moral  world  when  the  Spirit  of  God  comes 
in  special  contact  with  our  race.  Said  the  angel 
to  Mary — "The  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon  thee 
and  the  pov/er  of  the  Highest  shall  overshadow 
thee,  therefore  also  that  holy  thing  which  shall 
be  born  of  thee,  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  God." 
The  result  of  the  Spirit's  special  contact  with 
our  race,  was  the  great  moral  light,  "The  Light 
of  the  World."  In  both  instances  the  quickening 
influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  produces  the  same 
result. 

Once  more  let  us  sum  up  the  facts  so  far 
enumerated.  In  this  chapter  we  have  found — 
that  creation  is  successive,  not  instantaneous; 
that  it  is  progressive,  from  lower  to  higher;  that 
government  by  law  is  universal;  that  there  is 
subordination  of  the  lower  to  the  uses  of  the 
higher,  because  each  advancing  step  is  an  upward 
step;  that  light  results  from  vibratory  motion; 
that  it  is  good  light,  even  though  nebulous;  that 
light  long  precedes  the  appearance  of  the  lumi- 
naries, the  sun  and  moon;  that  it  is  good,  even 
before  light  is  separated  from  the  darkness,  be- 
cause the  earth  ceases  to  be  luminous;  that 
daily  rest  was  inaugurated  from  the  beginning, 
as  well  as  a  weekly  rest  of  a  whole  day.     Here 


FIRST  CREATURE  DAY  69 

we  have  ten  more  great  statements  to  add 
to  the  previous  twelve,  in  all  of  which  we  have 
not  met  one  challenge  from  science,  but  on 
the  contrary  the  most  hearty  and  astonished 
agreement. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SECOND  CREATIVE  DAY. 

"And  God  said — Let  there  be  an  expanse  between 
the  waters,  and  let  it  separate  the  waters  from  the 
tvaters.  And  God  made  the  expanse,  and  separated 
the  waters  which  are  under  the  expanse  from  the 
waters  which  are  over  the  expanse;  and  it  was  so. 
And  God  called  the  expanse  Heaven.  And  the  eve- 
ning was,   morning  was,  day  two. " 

In  the  second  creative  day  we  find  ourselves 
almost  on  historic  ground,  compared  with  the 
ageless  depths  from  which  we  have  just  emerged. 
Matter,  having  received  motion, swirled  into  one 
immense  nebula;  this  broke  up  into  countless 
suns,  all  still  revolving,  according  to  Maedler, 
around  one  common  center,  situated  in  the  region 
of  the  Pleiades.  Our  own  sun  has  thrown  off  its 
rings,  which  have  settled  down  into  as  many 
planets,  with  satellites  which  they  in  turn  threw 
off,  revolving  around  them.  At  last  our  earth  has 
became  a  settled  planet  and  has  thrown  off  its 
ring,  which  has  cooled  down  into  the  now  dead 
cold  moon.     The  crust  has  formed  on  the  cool- 

7l> 


SECOND  CREATIVE  DAY  1\ 

ing  earth  and  the  successive  steps  of  preparation 
for  the  abode  of  man,  have  begun. 

The  time  that  has  elapsed  from  the  first  form- 
ation of  its  crust  until  now,  computing  by  the 
rapidity  of  the  radiation  of  its  heat,  has  been 
estimated  by  Sir  W.  Thompson  as  from  one  to 
two  hundred  millions  of  years.  Prof.  Guthrie 
Tait,  on  the  other  hand,  argues  that  from  ten  to 
fifteen  millions  of  years  would  be  sufficient, 
while  Lockyer  suggests  a  longer  time  even  than 
that  of  Thompson. 

The  gasses  that  filled  the  atmosphere,  have 
sufficiently  cooled  to  form  chemical  combina- 
tions; two  atoms  of  Hydrogen  unite  with  one 
of  Oxygen,  and  vapors  of  water  begin  to  appear, 
for  all  the  water  which  now  fills  sea  and  river, 
then  existed  in  the  form  of  hot  gasses,  which 
were  prevented  from  uniting  to  become  com- 
pounds, by  the  excessive  heat. 

The  translation — "firmament"  is  most  unfort- 
unate, and  is  another  instance  where  the  trans- 
lator read  into  the  record  the  science  of  his  age. 
The  translators  of  our  authorized  version,  were 
misled  by — firmamentum — by  which  the  Vulgate 
translated  the  Greek — stereoma — of  the  Sep- 
tuagint.  Stereoma  and  firmamentum,  both 
mean  something    solid    or    fi.rm,  by    which    the 


n  Is  MOSES  SCIENTIFICP 

heavenly   bodies   were   thought    to  be    upborn. 

It  would  be  most  unfair  to  convict  Moses  of 
a  mistake,  because  of  a  mistransalation  in  our 
version;  yet  Prof.  Huxley  accused  Moses  of 
being  unscientific  because  he  uses  the  word — 
firmament,  when  Moses  does  no  such  thing. 
The  Hebrew  word  used  is — rakiach,  and  means 
something  expanded  or  beaten  out;  it  radically 
refers  to  the  work  of  a  metal  worker  when  he 
has  beaten  his  metal  out  into  thin  leaves.  The 
idea  is  correctly  expressed  in  Is.  42;  5 — "thus 
saith  the  Lord,  He  that  created  the  heavens  and 
stretched  them  out;  He  that  spread  forth  the 
earth;"  referring  to  an  extent  of  landscape.  Ex. 
39;3  "And  they  did  beat  the  gold  into  thin 
plates" — simple  extension.  Job.  37;  18  "Hast 
thou  with  Him  spread  out  the  sky  etc.".-' 

The  idea  therefore  which  is  expressed,  was  sim- 
ply that  of  extension,  without  reference  to  solidi- 
ty. A  more  correct  translation  of  the  word  is  "ex- 
panse," instead  of  firmament.  That  it  could  not 
have  meant  anything  solid  is  perfectly  clear 
from  the  record  itself,  which  says  a  few  verses 
below,  that  the  birds  are  to  "fly  in  the  open 
firmament  of  heaven." 

Before  following  Moses  any  farther,  we  shall 
turn  to  science,  and  ask  her  to  tell  us  the  story. 


SECOND  CREATll^E  DAY  IZ 

We    have    accepted     the     nebula     hypothesis. 
According  to   this,    the   earth    was   once   a    self 
luminous  body  as  fiercely  hot  as  the   sun   itself. 
All  that  is  now  solid  must  then  have   been   in   a 
liquid  form,    and   the   more   volatile   substances 
were  gaseous.     All    the  carbon  in  the  world  was 
then  carbonic  acid  gas,  all  the  sulphur  was  sul- 
phuric acid,  all    the  water    was   then   invisible 
steam.     All  that  we  now  behold  must  have  been 
represented   by   a   glowing   liquid   nucleus,     en- 
veloped in  a  dense  atmosphere  of  burning  acrid 
vapors.      The  sun  was  then  shining  as  now,  only 
larger,  and  possibly  earth  has  thrown  off  its  ring 
to  roll  up  into  a  globe  of  fire,  but  being  so  small, 
soon  cooled    down  into   our  dead   moon.     The 
fiery  glance  of  the  sun    was    met    by    a    fiercely 
burning  glance  from    the    earth,  where    reigned 
chaos  terrific.      Here  was  death    and  confusion, 
upon  which  the   uncreated   alone    looked  down 
and  saw  order  and  life  and  beauty  germinating  in 
the  heart    of    universal    discord.      Radiation    of 
heat  went  on  through   the  slow    ages,  also  con- 
traction.     The  least  fusible  elements  began  first 
to  crystallize;   when  the  temperature  had    suffi- 
ciently lowered,  a   solid   film   formed   over  the 
surface  of  water. 

The  earth  was  then  rotating  as  now;   sun  and 


/S  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


moon,  then  as  now,  reached  forth  their  attract- 
ing influences  to  solicit  the  tides  of  the  fiery  sea. 
But  the  film  was  quickly  broken  up  by  the  tidal 
waves,  just  as  now  the  ocean's  tides  break  up 
the  ice  which  may  have  formed.  In  time  how- 
ever, the  crowding,  jostling  fragments  began  to 
congeal  permanently,  as  the  broken  ice  of  the 
Arctic  seas,  after  being  worried  by  winds  and 
currents,  seizes  an  interval  of  calm  to  consolo- 
date  into  a  vast  rugged  floe.  The  rock  floe  of 
this  fiery  ocean,  formed  at  length  a  rough  and 
jagged  crust;  the  granites  were  then  laid  as  the 
foundation,  on  which  long  afterward,  the  water- 
formed  rocks  were  to  be  deposited.  These 
jammed  and  rugged  scoriae  of  crystalline  rocks 
were  to  be  ground  up  through  the  succeeding 
milleniums;  the  granite  grist  was  again  deposited 
as  stratified  rocks  beneath  the  water;  these  were 
again  to  be  reground.and  the  mass  worked  over 
and  over,  as  a  woman  works  her  dough,  to  form 
the  soil, on  which  the  long  distant  future  should 
see  life  blossoming  with  verdure  and  beauty. 

Of  course  no  water  could  then  have  fallen  on 
the  parched  and  blackened  earth,  for  all  was  too 
hot;  all  the  present  waters  of  ocean,  lakes  and 
rivers  was  then  an  invisible  gas.  At  length  the 
time  arrived  when   the   remoter   regions   of  the 


SECOND  CREATiyE  DAY 


atmosphere  had  been  so  far  reduced  in  temper- 
ature, as  to  cause  condensation  to  begin;  vapor 
began  to  appear  on  the  far  off  edges.  Clouds 
formed  and  grew  and  thickened  and  darkened, 
till  a  pall  of  impending  gloom  enwrapped  the 
earth,  and  the  light  of  sun  and  moon  and  stars 
were  shut  off  for  another  geological  age.  Parti- 
cle drew  particle  to  itself, and  rain  drops  began 
to  precipitate  themselves  through  the  lower 
strata  of  the  fervid  atmosphere.  In  their  descent 
they  were  scorched  to  evaporation  again;  the 
vapors  hurrying  back  to  the  bosom  of  the  cloud, 
were  again  sent  forth,  to  be  again  consumed. 
At  length  rain-drops  reached  the  fervid  crust, 
only  to  be  exploded  into  vapor  and  driven  back 
to  the  overburdened  cloud,  which  had  an  ocean 
to  transfer  to  the  earth.  The  clouds  poured  the 
ocean  continually  forth,  and  the  seething  crust 
continually  rejected  the  offering.  The  field  be- 
tween the  cloud  and  earth  was  one  stupendous 
scene  of  ebullition;  ten  thousand  Niagaras 
poured  into  as  many  Etnas. 

The  descent  of  the  rains  and  the  ascent  of  the 
vapors  disturbed  the  electricities  of  the  elements; 
in  the  midst  of  this  contest  between  fire  and 
water,  the  voices  of  heaven's  artillery  were 
heard;    lightening    darted    vivid     through     the 


76  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

Cimmerian  gloom,  and  world  convulsing  thunders 
echoed  through  thickest  darkness.  It  was  a  battle 
of  the  elements.* 

Let  us  realize  that  three  fourths  of  the  earth's 
surface  is  covered  with  water,  which  is  sufficient 
to  cover  the  whole  globe  to  the  depth  of  12,000 
feet.  At  that  time  all  the  water  was  in  the 
atmosphere,  so  that  the  pressure  on  the  hot 
surface  must  have  been  enormous,  no  less  than 
6,000  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  from  that 
cause  alone  Now  we  know  from  the  laws  of 
chemistry  that  great  pressure  will  force  vapor  into 
a  liquid,  long  before  the  steam  has  lowered  to 
the  point  of  liquefaction.  There  must  have 
been  therefore  a  sea  of  immensely  hot  water,long 
before  the  temperature  had  been  sufficiently 
lowered  for  steam  to  condense  into  water,  of  its 
own  accord;  a  boiling  sea  below,  was  prevented 
from  escaping  back  into  steam  by  the  enormous 
pressure,  and  a  sea  above  held  in  the  form  of 
vapor  all  the  rest  of  the  present  waters. 

Consider  what  vast  amount  of  water  can  now 
be  held  suspended  in  the  atmosphere!  In 
many  storms  the  fall  of  rain  will  exceed  two 
inches,  but  the  amount  of  water  on  an  acre  to 
the  depth  of  one  inch  will  weigh  100  tons.    The 

*  Figuier  and  Winchell. 


SECOND  CRE^TiyE  D^Y  77 

city  of  Cleveland  covers  an  area  of  about  eight 
miles  by  four,  or  thirty-two  square  miles.  If 
rain  should  fall  upon  this  area  to  the  depth  of 
two  inches  it  would  mean  that  four  million  tons 
of  water  had  been  held  in  suspension  over  this 
city  during  a  single  rain  storm.  All  the  rivers 
are  simply  the  overflow  of  the  vast  reservoir  of 
our  atmosphere;  the  Amazon,  the  Mississippi, 
the  Niagara  and  all  the  rivers  of  the  world  are 
carrying  away  the  excess  of  water  which  the 
atmosphere  once  held,  but  can  hold  no  longer. 
But  at  the  time  under  review,  the  atmosphere 
was  intensely  hot,  and  therefore  capable  of  hold- 
ing vastly  more  than  now;  there  was  truly  an 
ocean    above,  and  an  ocean  below. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  Moses  to  see  whether  he 
has  given  a  correct  account  from  his  side.  "And 
God  said — Let  there  be  an  expanse  in  the  midst 
of  the  waters,  and  let  it  divide  the  waters  from 
the  waters."  At  this  point  there  was  water 
only  both  above  and  below,  for  the  hot  vapors 
rested  directly  on  the  hot  sea.  Radiation  goes 
on  slowly,  and  the  vaporous  atmosphere  requires 
a  long  time  to  cool  sufficiently  to  make  a  clear- 
ing. Finally  the  clouds  become  thinner  at  the 
surface  of  the  earth ;  the  dense  fogs  begin  to  lift 
and  something  like  a  clear  atmosphere  opens  out 


78  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

into  a  growing  expanse,  which  does  Hterally 
divide  between  the  waters  which  were  above  and 
the  waters  which  were  below.  Still  the  clearing 
went  on;  the  clouds  float  higher  and  grow 
thinner,  until  a  faint  ray  struggles  through  the 
gloom.  At  last  the  whole  expanse  is  cleared, 
and  God  called  it — Heaven.  The  account  of 
Moses  agrees  exactly  with  that  of  science,  and 
still  we  find  no  hint  of  the  dreaded  conflict. 

But  to  get  at  all  its  meaning,  we  must  care- 
fully study  the  words  of  this  record.  Recall 
therefore  that  the  Hebrew  word  translated  — 
firmament,  is  rakiach.  Lexicographers  tell  us 
that  it  is  an  onomatopoetic  word,  that  is,  one 
whose  sound  represents  its  meaning,  as  buzz  of 
bees,  crackle  of  burning  thorns.  Some  maintain 
that  all  words  had  their  origen  in  this  way. 
Rak^h  is  such  a  word,  and  refers  to  the  din 
and  terrible  racket  of  a  gold- beater's  or  metal- 
workers' shop,  and  could  almost  be  translated — 
racket;  if  one  goes  into  a  boiler  shop  where  the 
sheets  of  iron  are  being  hammered,  he  will  un- 
derstand the  meaning  of  this  word. 

Now  see  how  accurate  is  this  description  of 
what  took  place  as  the  clearing  was  forming.  The 
electricities  were  disturbed,  as  described  a  few 
pages  before;  the  fearful   lightenings  shot   out 


SECOND  CREATIVE  DAY  79 

their  angry  flames,  terrific  thunders  almost 
sounded  the  crack  of  doom.  It  was  a  racket 
indeed;  an  expanse  seemed  to  be  beaten  out 
by  some  titanic  hammers,  whose  claps  shook  the 
earth.  In  one  word,  Moses  has  told  us  a  fact 
and  its  method  of  formation,  which  science  can 
tell  us  only  in  many  pages. 

Still  more;  there  was  onl}'  water  below  the 
expanse,  according  to  Moses;  in  the  succeeding 
day  when  the  dry  land  emerges, the  positive  state- 
ment is  made  that  there  was  then  a  universal 
sea,  that  covered  the  whole  earth.  No  state- 
ment is  more  abundantly  corroborated  than  this. 
What  mean  the  strata  of  rocks  which  every- 
where overlay  the  earth,  in  some  places  twenty- 
five  miles  in  thickness,  but  that  water  had  once 
covered  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth,  for  strati- 
fied rocks  can  be  formed  only  beneath  water. 

Winchel  says — "A  thousand  years  of  storm 
and  lightning  have  passed,  and  the  primeval 
tempest  is  drawing  to  a  close.  The  waters  are 
now  permitted  to  rest  on  the  surface.  By  de- 
grees the  clouds  are  exhausted, and  sunlight  filters 
through  the  thinned  envelope.  As  the  morning 
of  another  geological  epoch  dawns,  it  reveals  the 
change  of  scene;  the  surface  which  in  the  pre- 
ceding age  was  scorched  and  arid,  is  now  a  uni- 
versal sea  of  tepid  waters." 


IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC.^ 


The  action  of  water  was  essential  for  the  great 
work  of  preparation  and  purification,  before  the 
earth  should  be  fit  to  receive  life.  The  hard 
and  bare  rocks  must  be  ground  up  and  worked 
over  and  over;  the  high  temperature  enabled  the 
water  to  dissolve  many  substances  which  are  not 
soluable  in  cold  water,  and  which  are  needed  for 
the  future  soil.  No  living  man  had  seen  a  uni- 
versal sea,  and  so  improbable  a  fact  could  not 
have  been  guessed  until  the  leaves  of  rock  on 
which  the  fact  had  also  been  written,  was  opened 
by  the  geologist,  but  both  Genesis  and  Geology 
agree  in  their  testimony  that  the  surface'  of  the 
earth  was  covered  with  water. 

Notice  also  how  scientific  is  the  order  of  these 
events.  The  clearing  of  the  atmosphere  comes 
a/Ur  God  had  divided  between  the  light  and  the 
darkness,  that  is,  after  the  time  when  the  earth 
had  so  far  cooled  as  to  be  no  longer  luminous 
with  its  own  heat.  If  this  clearing  of  the  atmos- 
phere had  been  placed  before  the  division  into 
day  and  night,  there  would  have  been  a  great 
scientific  blunder  detected  at  once,  for  Moses 
would  have  asserted  that  water  existed  ata  time 
when  the  earth  was  still  so  intensely  hot  as  to 
be  self-luminous,  which  would  have  been  absurd. 
The  components  of  water  are   known   to   be    in 


SECOND  CRE/iTlVE  DAY  81 


the  sun,  for  the  spectroscope  shows  that  hydro- 
gen and  oxygen  are  there,  but  the  heat  will  not 
permit  these  atoms  to  unite  to  form  water.  So 
while  the  necessary  ingredients  were  present 
upon  the  burning  earth,  there  could  be  no  water 
formed  until  the  crust  had  so  far  cooled  as  to  be 
dark,  when  night  would  occur  on  that  part  which 
was  turned  away  from  the  sun.  So  it  is  after 
that  time  that  Moses  correctly  puts  the  formation 
of  water. 

Another  position,  eminently  scientific,  Moses 
unhesitatingly  assumes,  in  the  fact  that  he  here 
witholds  the  divine  commendation.  In  the  first 
day,  he  told  us  that  the  nebulous  light  was 
"good,"  and  the  spectroscope  fully  sustains  that 
statement;  but  on  the  second  day,  he  does  not 
add  the  word  of  commendation;  the  atmosphere 
is  not  said  to  be  "good." 

This  seems  like  a  great  oversight,  and  there- 
fore the  translators  of  the  Septuagint  undertook  to 
correct  this  mistake  of  Moses,  by  adding — "and 
God  saw  that  it  was  good."  But  science  comes 
in  to  sustain  Moses,  and  declares  most  positively 
that  the  atmosphere  was  not  good  at  that  early 
time.  The  oxygen  had  been  burned  out  and  the 
atmosphere  was  full  of  carbonic  acid  gas  which 
was  mimical  to  life;   even  plants  could   not   live 


82  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


in  an  atmosphere  so  overcharged  with  carbonic 
acid,  and  it  would  not  be  fit  for  respiration  for 
many  a  century.  Not  until  the  carboniferous 
period,  when  plants  flourished  most  luxuriantly, 
absorbing  the  carbonic  acid  and  replacing  it 
with  oxygen, — not  until  then  could  animal  life 
exist,  nor  would  the  atmosphere  be  good.  The 
appearance  or  absence  of  this  certificate  of  the 
Creator,  testifying  that  the  work  was  or  was  not 
adapted  to  the  function  it  was  intended  to  ful- 
fill, is  highly  scientific,  as  we  shall  have  reason 
to  notice  as  we  proceed. 

This  second  creative  day  corresponds  to  the 
Azoic  period  of  geology.  The  crystalline  rocks 
have  been  formed,  the  waters  have  begun  their 
long  and  slow  work  of  disintegration  to  produce 
new  rocks,  but  no  life  has  as  yet  appeared. 
This  was  a  period  of  preparation;  to  none  but 
to  the  eye  of  the  Infinite  Himself,  could  any 
prospect  of  what  should  be,  have  appeared  then, 
even  in  dimmest  suggestion.  The  work  to  be 
done  was  great,  and  the  time  needed  would  be 
long;  but  no;  this  is  incorrect  to  say,  for  great 
and  long  are  only  relative  terms,  to  be  used  by 
finite  creatures,  but  not  by  the  Infinite. 

Again  we  have  found  five  m.ore,  wide  reaching 
statements,  all  of  which  are  fully  borne   out   by 


SECOND  CREATIVE  DAY  83 

modern  science.  First — there  was  a  sea  below, 
owing  to  the  enormous  pressure  at  the  surface 
of  the  earth;  second — the  expanse,  or  clearing 
away  of  the  vapors,  was  literally  "in  the  midst 
of  the  waters;  third — there  was  at  first  a  univer- 
sal ocean;  fourth — the  dry  land  did  not  appear 
until  another  geological  era  had  passed;  fifth — 
the  atmosphere  was  so  full  of  carbonic  acid  gas, 
that  it  was  not  fit  for  breathing  either  by  plant 
or  animal;  it  was  not  "good."  In  the  twenty- 
seven  steps  so  far  taken  by  the  Mosaic  record,  it 
is  accompanied  by  science,  which  walks  by  its 
side  in  perfect  agreement,  without  one  word  ot 
discord. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THIRD  CREATIVE  DAY. 

^'A?id  God  said — Let  the  ivaters  under  the  heavefis 
be  gathered  into  one  place,  and  let  dry  land  appear ; 
and  it  was  so.  And  God  called  the  dry  land  earth, 
and  the  gathering  of  waters  called  He  seas;  and  God 
saw  that  it  was  good.  And  God  said — Let  the  earth 
bring  forth  grass,  herb  yielding  seed,  and  fruit  trees 
yielding  frtdt  after  its  kind,  wherein  is  the  seed 
thereof,  upon  the  earth;  and  it  was  so.  And  the  earth 
brought  forth  grass,  herb  yielding  seed  after  its  ki?id, 
and  trees  bearing  f-uit,  wherein  is  the  seed  thereof 
after  its  kind;  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And 
evening  was,  and  tnorning  zvas — day  three. ' ' 

The  thought  must  not  escape  our  minds,  that 
Moses  is  giving  in  one  chapter,  what  would  have 
required  vast  libraries,  filled  with  countless 
volumes  to  have  fully  described.  He  has  given 
a  sketch  in  largest  outline,  only  one  rapid  sweep 
of  the  inspired  pen  across  the  geologic  ages. 
We  may  not  therefore  ask — has  he  told  us  what 
we  think  should  have  been  told,  but  only — is  he 
correct  in  what  he  has  said?      And  if  his  pen  was 

84 


THIRD  CREATINE  DAY  85 


inspired,  let  us  expect  that  much  will  be  found 
which  does  not  appear  on  the  surface. 

He  has  brought  us  down  to  the  time  where 
the  water  that  had  been  held  in  the  atmosphere 
in  the  form  of  vapor,  has  been  precipitated  upon 
the  cooled  crust  and  has  formed  a  universal  sea. 
Contrary  to  what  he  could  himself  see,  contrary 
to  all  human  experience,  he  yet  persists  in  telling 
us  that  water  covered  the  whole  suface  of  the 
earth,  and  that  the  land  afterward  emerged  from 
beneath  the  waters. 

We  turn  again  to  science  to  ask  if  that  was  so.-* 
she  answers  promptly — "it  was  so."  Radiation 
of  heat  had  been  going  on  for  untold  ages;  as 
the  earth  cooled,  it  contracted  and  finally  the 
crust  became  hard  and  firm.  On  this  crystalline 
crust  the  waters  were  deposited  until  they 
covered  the  whole  earth,  and  in  them  the  vast 
piles  of  stratified  rocks  were  formed.  But  still 
the  radiation  of  heat  went  on,  but  more  slowly 
as  the  crust  thickened;  and  still  the  earth  con- 
tracted. At  first  the  crust  rested  on  the  surface 
of  the  molten  interior,  as  ice  rests  on  the  surface 
of  the  water.  As  the  contraction  still  continued, 
the  interior  withdrew  its  support,  as  the  water 
leaves  the  ice  suspended  when  it  has  sunk  away 
into  the  ground.      For   a   time   the   crust   could 


86  /5  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

support  itself  notwithstanding  that  it  did  not 
rest  solid  at  every  point,  but  finally  it  was  com- 
pelled to  crumple  up  and  adjust  itself  to  the 
smaller  interior.  This  it  could  do  only  by  fold- 
ing itself  into  wrinkles,  as  a  garment  will  wrinkle 
if  too  large  for  tne  person.  These  wrinkles  of  the 
earth's  crust  are  the  mountains,  which  appeared 
above  the  water  at  the  divine  command. 

Very  large  wrinkles,  we  may  think,  but  the 
fact  is,  they  are  very  small  compared  to  the  size 
of  the  earth  on  whose  surface  they  have  formed. 
The  diameter  of  the  earth  is  nearly  eight  thou- 
sand miles;  a  wrinkle  ten  thousand  feet  high 
would  be  like  a  paint  blister  raised  one  tenth  of 
an  inch  on  a  house  thirty-five  feet  high.  But 
the  mountain  ranges  hardly  average  three 
thousand  feet  in  height,  which  compared  to  the 
size  of  the  earth,  would  be  like  a  wrinkle  on  an 
apple,  so  small  that  it  could  not  be  seen  without 
a  magnifying  glass.  So  the  dry  land  obeyed  the 
creative  command,  in  the  way  and  at  the  time 
indicated  in  the  record. 

"But  a  new  agency  soon  began  to  work,  an 
agency  of  terrific  power;  volcanic  outbursts  of 
fearful  extent  took  place.  As  the  wrinkles 
would  crack  in  some  places  and  form  great  rents 
in  the  crust    of    the    earth,  the   cooled   surface 


THIRD  CREy4TIFE  DAY  87 

water  would  pour  through  the  openings,  and 
coming  in  contact  with  the  internal  molten  fire, 
would  cause  explosion  after  explosion,  upheaval 
after  upheaval;  vast  stretches  of  earth's  surface, 
hundreds  of  miles  in  extent,  would  be  pushed 
up  above  the  ocean,  amidst  the  most  terrific 
thunderings  and  awful  crashes.  We  all  know 
how  disastrous  to  a  red-hot  boiler  is  the  sudden 
inlet  of  water  turning  to  steam;  it  exerts  a  force 
that  bursts  the  strongest  bands  of  iron.  Imagine 
vast  masses,  millions  of  tons  of  water,  suddenly 
precipitated  through  the  gaping  earth  upon  the 
molten  rocks  and  liquid  fires  beneath.  It  is 
impossible  for  us  to  conceive  the  awfulness  of 
the  scene,  but  monuments  of  that  age  of  thunder 
exist,  which  speak  to  us  of  its  terrific  forces. 
The  Andes,  the  Himalayas,  the  Alps,  and  other 
vast  mountain  ranges,  are  the  upheavals  of  this 
period  of  the  world's  history,  and  standing  mon- 
uments of  the  day  when  the  Lord  said — Let  the 
dry  land  appear." 

The  objection  will  doubtless  be  raised,  that  it 
was  not  by  divine  command  that  these  results 
were  brought  about,  for  science  teaches  that 
they  were  accomplished  by  the  laws  of  nature. 
That  phrase — "laws  of  nature,"  is  misleading;  it 
is  often  used  as  though  law  contained    a   power 


IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


in  itself  to  effect  results.  Law  is  only  the 
metJiod  of  action,  in  which  works  a  force  outside 
of  itself;  the  laws  of  nature  are  only  grooves, 
through  which  some  mighty  force  moves. 
What  is  the  force?  Not  nature,  for  nature  is  a 
result,  not  a  cause.  It  is  not  inherent  in  matter, 
for  science  has  proved  that  there  is  no  self- 
originating  nor  self-perpetuating  force  in  matter, 
because  matter  always  tends  to  come  to  rest, 
unless  it  is  moved  upon  from  without.  The  only 
originating  force  of  which  we  are  cognizant,  is 
will;  this  alone  can  originate  force  and  direct  it 
to  an  intelligent  end.  Therefore  back  of  the 
laws  according  to  which  nature  is  compelled  to 
move;  back  of  nature  itself,  which  cannot  orig- 
inate action  or  motion,  but  can  only  carry  out 
that  which  has  been  impressed  upon  it;  back  of 
all,  there  must  be  a  mighty  Will,  if  we  may  be 
permitted  to  reason  from  the  seen  to  the  unseen. 
Moses  says  it  was  Will  that  caused  all  these 
effects,  and  its  name  is  God;  "and  God  said — 
let  there  be,  and  it  was  so;"  and  science  offers 
no  objection. 

These  original  wrinkles  formed  the  outlines  of 
the  future  continents;  again  and  again  the  crust 
had  to  double  up  and  compress  itself  together 
to  conform  to  the  shrinking  interior,  and  so  the 
continents  gradually  grew. 


HIRD  CREATURE  DAY  80 

Prof.  Guyot  has  shown  in  a  beautiful  and  con- 
vincing way,  a  unity  of  design  in  all  the  great 
mountain  systems,  which  form  the  skeletons  on 
which  the  respective  continents  are  built.  The 
systems  all  run  from  north-west  to  south  east, 
or  from  north-  east  to  south-west,  and  the  contour 
of  the  continents  is  formed  by  these  boundary 
masses,  as  will  be  readily  seen  by  the  study,  of  a 
map  of  the  world.  The  same  system  also  runs 
through  the  oceans,  for  the  islands  of  the  sea 
are  only  the  tops  of  such  mountain  ranges,  and 
their  general  direction  is  the  same.  These  lines 
of  crumpling  are  all  arranged  in  great  circles  of 
the  earth,  tangent  to  the  polar  circle.  There  is 
therefore  a  uniformity  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
whole  mountain  system  of  the  earth. 

Thus  science  shows  that  not  only  were  the 
creative  commands  carried  out  in  exactly  the 
way  described,  but  that  one  great  system  is  ap- 
parent in  all  the  ranges  which  marked  out  the 
boundaries  of  the  future  continents,  showing  that 
it  was  one  directing  Will  that  was  obeyed. 

"And  these  wrinklings  of  the  earth's  crust  are 
still  proceeding  at  the  present,  though  not  as 
formerly,  because  the  crust  is  becoming  thicker 
as  the  cooling  still  goes  on.  Some  countries  are 
gradually  rising  above   the   ocean,  while   others 


90  /5  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

are  being  depressed.  Norway  and  Sweden,  for 
instance  seem  to  be  situated  upon  the  convex 
side  of  one  of  these  wrinkles;  marine  beaches 
are  found  hundreds  of  feet  above  the  present 
sea  level;  and  by  careful  observation  it  has  been 
found  that  a  gradual  upheaval  of  perhaps  four 
feet  a  century,  is  still  taking  place.  In  almost 
every  country,  marine  shells  are  found  on  the 
top  of  the  highest  mountains.  Each  upheaval 
necessitates  a  corresponding  depression;  thus 
along  the  east  coast  of  England,  there  is  a  de- 
pression of  the  land,  and  the  ocean  is  slowly 
encroaching.  Once  England  was  so  high  that 
there  was  no  English  Channel,  but  it  was  joined 
to  the  continent,  and  no  channel  existed  between 
it  and  Ireland,"  These  changes  are  not  percep- 
tible to  us,  because  our  lives  are  so  short,  but 
for  many  centuries  they  have  been  proceeding. 
Areas  have  been  raised  above  the  sea,  and  then 
depressed  as  some  other  elevation  took  place 
elsewhere;  they  were  again  raised  and  again  de- 
pressed, for  whole  continents  thus  oscillate. 
South  America  has  along  its  western  coast, 
what  are  called  parallel  roads,  which  are  nothing 
but  sea  beaches,  that  have  been  raised  one  after 
another,  and  the  eastern  coast  has  been  corre- 
spondingly depressed.   But  these  changes  do  not 


Third  creative  day  91 


always  go  on  so  quietly,  even  now.  Occasionally 
we  read  of  fearful  earthquakes  which  entirely 
alter  the  configuration  of  the  whole  country. 
Land  is  forced  up  where  no  land  had  existed, 
and  the  waters  of  the  ocean  are  hurled  in  a 
mighty  wave  against  the  opposite  coast  line, 
overwhelming  cities  and  villages.  But  how  must 
it  have  been  in  the  earlier  ages  of  the  world's 
history,  when  all  these  forces  waged  a  thousand 
fold  power?  Geologists  are  agreed  that  the 
Devonian  era  was  one  of  fearful  volcanic  dis- 
turbance. How  marvellously  the  Psalmist 
describes  the  wonders  of  this  age  of  thunder  in 
the  104th  Psalm — "The  waters  stood  above  the 
mountains.  At  thy  rebuke  they  fled;  at  the 
voice  of  thy  thunder  they  hasted  away.  They 
go  up  by  the  mountains,  they  go  down  by  the 
vallies,  unto  the  place  which  Thou  hast  founded 
for  them." 

The  next  statement  is  also  thoroughly  accurate, 
but  wholly  impossible  for  any  uninspired  man  to 
make — "Let  the  waters  be  gathered  together 
into  one  place."  In  his  Manual  of  Geology,  Dana 
expresses  this  fact  in  almost  the  same  words, 
though  without  any  reference  to  Genesis;  "while 
the  continents  are  separate  areas,  the  oceans 
occupy    one   continuous    hasiny     Exactly;     but 


92  rS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC^ 

how  could  the  author  of  this  order  have  known 
that  the  waters  on  the  earth  was  one  vast  body, 
while  the  continents  were  isolated  islands? 

Think  of  the  situation;  had  the  writer  looked 
upon  the  Mediterranean  sea  to  the  westward, 
and  the  Red  sea  or  perhaps  the  Arabian  Gulf  on 
the  south?  Had  he  doubled  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  to  find  that  both  were  one  and  the  same 
bodies  of  water?  But  even  then,  he  would  have 
known  nothing  of  the  Atlantic  stretching  west 
from  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  still  west  until 
it  joined  its  waters  with  those  of  the  Pacific, 
which  in  turn  would  carry  on  the  connection 
until  it  had  traversed  the  round  earth  and  had 
joined  again  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea.  No 
one  could  have  known  that,  until  after  Columbus 
had  made  his  great  discovery  three  thousand 
years  after  the  time  of  Moses.  Until  the  world 
had  been  circumnavigated  by  Magellan,  not  a 
scientist  living  on  the  earth  could  have  made  that 
statement  which  is  advanced  so  boldly, that  "the 
waters  under  the  heaveii  were  gathered  together 
into  one  place."  One  might  have  said — the 
waters  under  the  southern  heaven  is  one  body; 
or  perhaps  the  waters  under  the  western  heavens; 
but  for  three  thousand  years  after  this  statement 
had  been  made,  science  could  but   place   herself 


THIRD  CREATIVE  DAY  03 


squarely  against  Revelation,  and  insist  that  here 
is  a  geographical  mistake.  How  did  this  old 
record  get  a  three  thousand  year  start  of  science? 

The  divine  approval  is  again  given  to  the  work 
that  has  so  far  proceeded  on  the  third  day;  "the 
earth  and  seas  are  pronounced  good."  Does 
geology  bear  out  this  statement?  Certainly  not, 
if  it  is  meant  that  the  dry  land  was  good,  as  soon 
as  it  had  emerged  from  the  water.  At  first  it 
was  only  black  lava,  and  this  would  require 
many  ages  before  it  had  been  ground  up  and 
worked  over  to  produce  soil;  this  material 
needed  to  be  enriched  by  lime  taken  from  the 
sea,  beneath  which  geology  finds  the  land  has 
been  submerged  again  and  again;  it  needed  to 
be  enriched  by  carbonaceous  matter  from  the  de- 
composition of  plants  and  animals,  before  it  was 
capable  of  sustaining  vegetation,  and  could  be 
called  "good."  At  first, the  sea  also  was  unfit 
for  life;  vast  qantities  of  lime,  silica  and  other 
impurities  held  in  solution,  had  to  be  removed  by 
marine  vegetation,  which  took  up  the  excess  of 
mineral  mater  and  carbonic  acid,  before  the  sea 
could  be  called  "good." 

Is  there  then  a  conflict  here?  Not  unless  we 
believe  the  arrangement  in  verses  was  inspired. 
The  clause   expressing   the    divine   approval   is 


Oi  is  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


placed  in  the  tenth  verse,  and  so  makes  it  appear 
that  it  was  given  immediately  after  the  dry  land 
and  seas  had  been  separated.  This  was  another 
reading  of  the  science  of  the  day  into  the  record, 
and  so  making  it  false.  But  place  this  clause  at 
the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  verse,  instead  of 
at  the  end  of  the  tenth  and  all  is  correct.  "And 
God  saw  that  it  was  good;  and.  God  said — let 
the  earth  bring  forth  grass,  etc."  When  was 
the  approval  given.-*  Moses  does  not  tell  us 
when;  but  geology  says  long,  very  long  after  the 
emergence  of  the  dry  land,  did  it  become  "good." 
All  that  Moses  says  on  the  subject  is,  that  the 
commendation  was  given  before  the  next  step 
was  taken;  it  was  "good,"  before  the  earth  was 
commanded  to  bring  forth  vegetation,  and  this 
is  perfectly  correct. 

We  must  not  read  these  statements,  which 
describe  the  events  of,  no  one  knows  how  many, 
ages,  as  though  they  immediately  followed  each 
other.  The  few  facts  here  given  are  like  the 
tops  of  mountain  peaks,  along  whose  range  we 
are  looking;  all  these  peaks  seem  to  lie  close 
together,  owing  to  the  lack  of  perspective,  but 
when  we  come  close  to  them  we  find  that  they 
are  separated  by  wide  intervening  vallies. 

These  facts  may  seem   to   lie    close    together, 


THIRD  CREATINE  DAY  95 


because  the  narrative  gives  no  intervening  spaces 
between  them ;  imperfect  science  used  to  read 
them  as  though  they  followed  each  other  imme- 
diately. But  now  that  science  is  able  to  walk 
over  the  same  ground,  it  finds  that  while  the 
great  facts  are  true,  yet  there  are  immense  gaps 
between  them  in  regard  to  time.  There  is  an 
immense  gap  between  the  emergence  of  the  dry 
land,  and  its  being  good,  though  from  our  view 
point  we  can  not  see  it. 

We  now  approach  a  difficulty  which  has  made 
Revelation  seem  to  be  in  hopeless  conflict  with 
science.  "And  God  said — let  the  earth  bring 
forth  grass,  herb  yielding  seed,  and  fruit  tree 
bearing  fruit  after  its  kind,  wherein  is  the  seed 
thereof,  upon  the  earth;  and  it  was  so."  But 
geology  says  that  this  was  not  the  first  vegeta- 
tion, for  marine  vegetation  had  existed  long  be- 
fore land  vegetation  appeared;  indeed  marine 
vegetation  helped  to  prepare  the  soil  on  which 
land  vegetation  could  live.  Likewise  on  the  fifth 
day  the  record  tells  us — "And  God  said,  let  the 
waters  bring  forth  abundantly  the  moving 
creature  that  hath  life,  etc. ,"  while  geology  again 
insists, that  living  creatures  had  existed  in  the 
sea,  long  ages  before  the  time  of  the  fifth  creative 
day.  How  shall  we  reconcile  these  two  author- 
ities on  these  points.-* 


96  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

There  needs  to  be  no  reconciliation.  The 
difficulties  arise  because  we  have  not  expected 
this  record  to  be  scientific,  and  therefore  we 
have  not  read  it  with  that  care  with  which  we 
would  read  a  book  of  science.  Every  statement 
of  science  we  expect  will  be  both  inclusive  and 
exclusive.  For  instance,  if  a  scientist  speaks  of 
vertebrates,  we  understand  him  to  carefully  t'n- 
cliide  all  the  animals  which  have  a  spinal  column, 
but  also  exclude  just  as  rigidly  all  which  do  not 
have  a  spine.  If  now  we  would  read  this  record 
in  this  way,  we  should  be  relieved  at  once  of 
many  supposed  difficulties. 

The  charge  is  that  geology  says  that  a  marine 
vegetation  came  into  existence  first,  while  Moses 
speaks  first  of  land  vegetation.  Now  the  truth 
is,  that  Moses  has  not  chosen  to  speak  of  marine 
vegetation  at  all;  it  may  have  existed  for  ages 
before  the  dry  land  brought  forth  grass,  but 
Moses  is  confining  himself  exclusively  to  land 
vegetation.  He  tells  us  plainly  that  it  was  to 
the  EARTH  to  which  God  spake  to  bring  forth 
grass,  and  of  course  it  brought  forth  what  it  was 
commanded  to  do.  There  is  no  conflict  what- 
ever here;  geology  says  marine  vegetation  came 
first  into  existence.  Very  well;  it  may  have 
been  so,  for  all  that  Moses  says  to  the  contrary; 


THIRD  CREATIVE  DAY 


he  has  simply  said  nothing  about  marine  vege- 
tation, but  warned  us  that  it  was  of  land  vege- 
tation of  which  he  was  speaking,  and  in  this  he 
was  perfectly  correct. 

Likewise  the  difficulty  of  the  fifth  day  will 
also  disappear,  if  we  read  the  statement  with 
rigid  attention.  Geology  tells  us  that  animal 
life  existed  long  ages  before  the  time  of  which 
Moses  speaks.  Protozoans  had  already  swarmed 
in  the  sea  for  many  centuries.  Chalk  is  now 
found  to  be  the  remains  of  the  shells  of  minute 
sea  animals,  which  absorbed  the  lime  from  the 
water  and  converted  it  into  chalk  and  limestone 
formations.  The  chalk  deposits  are  so  vast  that 
along  the  English  Channel  they  tower  up  in 
cliffs  one  thousand  feet  and  dazzle  the  eye  with 
their  brilliant  whiteness,  giving  to  England  the 
name  of  Albion.  This  chalk  formation  extends 
across  the  continent  of  Europe  for  more  than 
eleven  hundred  miles  in  length,  and  eight  hun- 
dred miles  m  breadth.  But  these  animals  that 
inhabited  the  chalk  shells,  lived  long  before  the 
fifth  creative  day. 

But  now  read  the  record  with  that  care  which 
would  be  exercised  in  reading  a  scientific  state- 
ment, and  the  apparent  conflict  disappears. 
"And     God    said — let    the    waters    brine    forth 


98  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC/ 

abundantly  the  moving  creature  that  hath  life 
etc."  What  kind  of  creature  is  Moses  speaking 
of  which  appeared  on  the  fifth  day?  It  is  the 
'"''tnoving  creature^  But  these  earlier  protozoans, 
of  which  geology  tells  us,  were  not  "moving 
creatures;"  many  were  what  may  be  called 
agglutinative  creatures;  animals  which  builded 
themselves  fast  to  each  other,  as  the  corals  now 
do;  they  could  not  "move,"  but  were  stationary, 
and  so  it  was  not  of  them  at  all  that  Moses  was 
speaking.  These  were  rigidly  excluded  by  the 
careful  terms  he  used  —  "moving  creatures."  The 
Spirit  did  not  propose  to  tell  us  about  protozoans, 
and  other  inferior  animals  which  could  be  seen 
only  with  a  microscope;  what  He  gave  Moses  to 
say,  was  that  the  class  of  creatures  carefully 
described  as  "moving  creatures,"  appeared  on  the 
fifth  creative  day.  Likewise  of  the  introduction 
of  marine  vegetation,  the  record  does  not  speak; 
this  is  one  of  those  unseen  vallies  which  inter- 
vene between  the  mountains,  whose  peaks  have 
alone  been  brought  into  sight  by  the  light  of 
inspiration,  which  has  illumined  them.  Again 
there  is  no  conflict  between  Revelation  and 
Science,  for  they  are  speaking  of  different  kinds 
of  life,  and  both  are  true. 

It   is   on   the    third    day    that    vegetation    is 


THIRD  CREATIVE  DAY  99 

created,  but  not  until  the  tifth  day  that  animal 
life  appears,  and  here  again  is  enunciated  a  great 
scientific  truth  which  is  abundantly  corroborated, 
viz,  that  plant  life  precedes  animal  life.  Carbonic 
acid  gas,  with  which  the  atmosphere  was  laden, 
was  propitious  to  the  growth  of  plants,  but 
inimical  to  the  existence  of  animals.  The  vege- 
table and  animal  kingdoms  are  complementary 
to  each  other;  the  plant  absorbs  carbonic  acid 
and  exhales  oxygen,  while  the  animal  reverses 
this  process  and  absorbs  oxygen  but  exhales  car- 
bonic acid.  In  this  way  the  atmosphere  is  pre- 
served pure,  and  fit  for  both  plants  and  animals, 
for  what  is  used  by  the  one  is  produced  by  the 
other.  At  first  however,  the  plant  alone  could 
exist,  which  must  prepare  the  atmosphere  and 
the  soil  for  the  introduction  of  animal  life,  and 
the  order  of  their  introduction  given  by  the 
record  is  correct.  Geology  has  found  fossils  of 
plants  and  animals  in  the  same  rocks  as  though 
their  introduction  was  contemporaneous,  and  it 
had  to  depend  upon  its  own  reasoning  to  prove 
that  the  plant  must  have  preceded  the  animal.  In 
late  years,  however,  graphite,  from  which  lead 
pencils  are  made,  and  which  is  found  in  igneous 
rocks,  has  been  proved  to  be  of  vegetable  origin, 
and  so  the  rocks  too,  add  their  testimony  to  the 


100  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


reasoning  of  the  geologist,  and  confirm  the  order 
given  by  Moses,  in  which  the  plant  has  the  pre- 
cedence of  the  animal. 

This  order  is  rigidly  scientific  also  for  another 
reason.  The  plant  lives  upon  inorganicinatter, 
but  the  animal  lives  only  upon  organic  matter. 
The  function  of  the  plant  is  to  take  the  inor- 
ganic and  convert  it  into  organic,  and  so  furnish 
food  for  the  grade  of  life  next  above  itself;  the 
plant  stands  as  the  connecting  link  between  dead 
matter  and  the  living  animal. 

It  is  one  of  the  miracles  of  nature,  com- 
mon, yet  none  the  less  a  miracle,  that  the  par- 
ticle of  rock  that  has  been  broken  off  from 
the  mountain  by  the  hammer  of  frost  and 
washed  down  to  the  valley  by  the  freshet, 
can  be  seized  upon  by  the  rootlets  of  the 
plant,  and  elements  extracted  which  are  or- 
ganized into  living  material.  This  material  is 
handed  on  by  the  plant  to  the  ox  which  feeds  in 
the  meadow;  the  ox  lays  down  its  life  for  the 
life  of  man  and  passes  on  these  elements  until 
they  are  incorporated  into  a  human  body;  per- 
haps they  go  to  nourish  the  brain,  by  which 
thought  is  evolved,  which  flies  out  to  grapple 
with  the  secrets  of  the  stars.  Here  is  a  miracle 
indeed!   the  rock  of  the  mountain  has  some  con- 


THIRD  CREATURE  DAY  101 

nection  with  the  thought  that  calculates  the 
orbits  of  the  stars,  Soniehow,  the  rock  becomes 
a  wing,  by  means  of  which  thought  flies  to  the 
Pleiades.  The  plant  takes  dead  matter  and 
organizes  it  into  living  material, upon  which  alone 
animal  life  can  subsist.  Therefore  the  plant 
must  have  preceded  the  animal  in  the  order  of 
its  introduction  upon  the  earth,  just  as  the  Bible 
record  gives  it. 

But  the  time  of  this  introduction  is  also  to  be 
noted  from  another  point  of  view.  We  saw  in 
chapter  III,  that  the  six  creative  days  divide 
themselves  into  two  great  classes;  the  first  three 
constitute  the  era  of  matter,  the  last  three  con- 
stitute the  era  of  life.  But  let  us  notice  carefully 
that  life  is  introduced  not  in  the  era  of  life,  but 
in  the  era  of  matter;  this  forms  the  second  act 
of  the  third  day,  instead  of  being  performed, 
as  we  might  have  expected,  on  the  fifth  day. 
Is  not  this  an  inconsistency.-*  Has  not  Moses 
made  a  mistake  in  introducing  life  before  its 
time.'  Guyot  says  "this  is  profoundly  philo- 
sophical," but  its  philosophical  aspect  will  be 
reserved  to  be  discussed  when  we  study  its 
counterpart  on  the  sixth  day,  for  there  too,  a 
second  act  takes  place;  it  is  the  introduction 
there  too  of  life,  but   this  time    a    spiritual,  as 


102  /5  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


that  introduced  on  the  third  day  is  natural. 
And  the  spiritual  life  seems  again  to  have  been 
introduced  before  its  time,  viz,  in  the  era  of 
natural  life;  whereas  we  should  again  have  ex- 
pected that  spiritual  life  would  not  have  been 
introduced  until  the  era  of  the  spiritual  had 
arrived,  viz,  in  the  seventh  period.  But  this 
will    be    considered  more  fully  later. 

Let  us  ask  science  whether  it  is  proper  thus 
to  introduce  a  new  creation  by  sending  forward 
a  forerunner  to  announce  its  coming.  We  have 
seen  a  John  Baptist  run  before  the  chariot  of  his 
King  to  announce  his  appearance;  we  have  seen 
angels  herald  the  birth  of  the  Savior,  but  this  is 
in  another  realm  altogether,  and  we  thought 
sending  scouts  in  advance  was  a  peculiarity  of  the 
spiritual  kingdom  only. 

Winchell  tells  us — "Nature  has  always  issued 
her  bulletins.  It  is  a  most  interesting  fact  in 
the  history  of  the  animal  creation  that  Nature 
advertised  her  plans  in  the  very  earliest  creative 
acts.  Nature  had  her  plans,  and  these  were 
mature  in  the  very  beginning.  All  possible  con- 
tingencies being  foreseen,  no  amendments  or 
modifications  have  been  necessitated  by  the 
growth  of  successive  populations  and  the  march 
of     human     improvement.       The     outlines     of 


THIRD  CRE/tTIt^E  DAY  103 


Nature's  grand  methods  were  announced  in  her 
initial  creative  efforts.  It  was  thus  in  the  plan 
of  continental  development ;  it  was  thus  in  the 
plan  of  the  animal  creation.  It  is  only  in  the 
infinite  flexibility  of  her  plans,  and  in  the  inex- 
haustible richness  of  the  filling  up,  that  Nature 
transcends  all  the  possibilities  of  human  expec- 
tation." 

Here  is  one  of  those  bulletins  announcing 
what  was  to  come  on  the  fifth  and  sixth  creative 
days,  by  making  the  introduction  of  the  lowest 
form  of  life  the  second  act  of  the  third  day. 
Moses  plants  the  tree  of  life  on  the  third  day,  so 
that  it  may  strike  its  roots  deep  down  in  the  in- 
organic period,  while  it  is  to  develope  and  pro- 
duce its  fruit  all  through  the  next  period,  the 
era  of  life.  Guyot  says:  "The  striking  fact 
that  Moses,  though  fully  recognizing  the  great 
difference  between  the  two  works  of  the  third 
day,  and  importance  of  the  vegetable  kingdom, 
did  not  assign  to  it  a  special  day  but  left  it  in  the 
age  of  matter,  is  full  of  meaning.  The  plant  is 
not  yet  life,  but  the  bridge  between  matter  and 
life,  the  link  between  the  two  ages.  Placed 
within  the  material  age  of  creation,  it  is  the 
harbinger  and  promise  of  a  more  noble  and 
better  time  to  come.      It  is  the  root  of  the  living 


104  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


tree,  planted  in  the  organic  globe  and  destined 
to  flourish  in  the  age  of  life." 

But  we  are  asking,  "Is  Moses  scientific?"  Is 
it  scientific  thus  to  introduce  life,  not  in  its  own, 
but  in  a  previous  age?  Dana  says,  "The  be- 
ginning of  an  age  will  be  in  the  midst  of  a  pre- 
ceding age.  We  naturally  look  for  precursors 
of  every  age.  There  were  Mammals  before  the 
age  of  Mammals,  Reptiles  before  the  age  of  Rep- 
tile, Acrogensand  Gymnosperms  before  the  age 
of  coal-plant."  And  likewise  Moses  says  there 
was  life  before  the  age  of  life.  Moses  and  Dana 
agree. 

If  the  reaoer  will  turn  forward  to  the  chart  on 
page  1 39  this  thought  will  be  made  clearer,  and 
he  will  see  again  how  scientifically  correct  Moses 
is  in  thus  introducing  life,  in  a  way  which  at  first 
sight  seems  to  us  inconsistent.  It  will  there  be 
seen,  according  to  Dana,  that  the  various  classes 
of  life  follow  each  other  through  the  geologic 
ages  and  reach  their  culmination,  in  a  period 
which  is  named  for  the  species  which  then 
flourishes.  The  first  age  is  that  of  invertebrates ; 
next  above  is  the  age  of  fishes,  the  age  of  reptiles, 
of  mammals  and  of  man.  Now  notice  that  these 
various  orders  of  life,  began,  not  in  their  own 
age,    but     each    began    in    the    age    preceding. 


THIRD  CREATINE  DAY  105 


Fishes  flourished  in  the  age  named  for  them, 
but  began  in  the  previous  age.  Reptiles  began 
not  in  their  own,  but  in  the  previous  age  of 
fishes.  Mammals  began  not  in  their  own,  but 
in  the  previous  age  of  reptiles.  But  this  rule 
does  not  hold  in  the  case  of  man,  The  mean- 
ing of  all  this  is,  that  each  order  of  natural  life 
began  in  the  age  preceding  to  that  in  which 
it  flourished. 

And  this  agrees  exactly  with  Moses.  Dana 
tells  us  that  each  of  the  subdivisions  of  natural 
life  flourished  in  one  age,  but  had  its  origin  in 
the  preceding;  Moses  tells  us  that  the  same 
law  is  true  of  life  in  general;  that  it  too  flour- 
ished in  one  age,  but  had  its  origin  in  the  age 
preceding.  If  Moses  had  told  us  that  life  began 
in  the  fifth  day,  where  we  would  have  expected 
it  to  begin,  he  would  have  placed  himself  in 
positive  conflict  with  science.  If  he  had  re- 
corded— "And  God  said — let  the  earth  bring 
forth  grass,  herb  yielding  seed  etc,"  and  entered 
it  on  the  fourth  or  fifth  day,  somewhere  within 
the  era  of  life,  he  would  have  shown  that  he  was 
neither  inspired  nor  scientific.  But  the  chart 
of  Moses  precisely  agrees  with  the  chart  of  Dana. 

Still  another  great  scientific  principle  appears. 
Life  is  a  new  thing   in    the    earth;   hitherto   all 


1C6  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


had  been  lifeless;  the  inorganic  alone  had  ex- 
isted, and  had  at  once  been  placed  under  the 
dominion  of  law.  How  will  it  be  when  life 
appears?  Moses  tells  us,  each  form  of  this  new 
principle  is  at  once  placed  under  the  dominion 
of  law  also.  That  is — it  is  God  working  still,  as 
much  in  preserving  these  species  of  life  as  in 
creating  them,  but  He  works  according  to  an 
unchangable  method  from  the  beginning.  Hence- 
forth there  is  to  be  no  more  special  creation,  but 
the  plants  are  endowed  with  the  power  of  per- 
petuating themselves.  The  herbs  bear  seeds, 
the  trees  yield  fruit  which  enclose  their  seed,  and 
each  species  henceforth  is  to  go  on  reproducing 
— "after  his  kind."  Life  enjoys  a  new  property 
unknown  before — -that  of  reproduction;  con- 
formity to  type  was  impressed  upon  life  from  the 
first  says  Moses.  No  law  is  more  abundantly 
confirmed  than  this;  different  species  reproduce 
themselves  continually — "after  his  kind."  There 
is  capacity  of  unlimited  improvement  of  kind; 
the  wild  rose  of  the  wayside  little  looks  like  the 
progenitor  of  the  American  Beauty  or  Jacque- 
minot. The  great  luscious  clusters  bursting 
with  purple  blood,  are  a  vast  improvement  of  the 
wild  grape  of  the  forest.  Improvement  always 
— "after  his  kind,"  as  Moses  declares.    Artificial 


THIRD  CREyiTIVE  DAY  107 


generation  can  force  different  species  to  unite 
and  produce  hybrids,  but  if  left  to  themselves 
they  will  invariably  return  again  to  their  original 
stock  according  to  the  law  of  conformity  to 
type.  "After  his  kind,"  is  one  of  the  command- 
ments written  on  nature's  decalogue  recorded  in 
this  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  nature  obeys 
her  ten  commandments  better  than   does    man. 

The  divine  commendation  is  again  received ; 
"and  God  saw  that  it  was  good."  Not  only  was 
vegetation  good  in  itself,  but  especially  as  it  was 
fitted  to  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  then  intro- 
duced. It  was  "good,"  in  that  it  immediately  set 
about  removing  the  excess  of  carbonic  acid  from 
the  atmosphere  and  so  prepare  for  higher  forms 
of  life,  for  which  the  earth  was  not  yet  fitted. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  follow  geology  as  it 
traces  the  forms  of  vegetable  life,  especially  as 
it  describes  for  us  the  carboniferous  period,  when 
vegetation  was  most  luxuriant,  and  the  carbon 
was  taken  from  the  atmosphere  and  stored  away 
in  the  coal  measures,  which  like  the  first  promise 
in  the  garden  was  a  most  suggestive  prophecy 
and  promise  of  great  blessings  as  yet  in  the  far 
future.  If  there  is  anything  that  can  prove  a 
divine  plan  and  providence,  it  is  the  existence  of 
coal.     Certain    conditions    had    to    be    fulfilled 


108  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

which  could  occur  once  and  never  again.  Not 
only  was  excessive  carbonic  acid  gas  necessary, 
as  food  lor  vegetation,  but  also  the  heat  and 
moisture  which  existed  only  in  the  earlier  ages. 
It  was  also  necessary  that  there  should  be  rapid 
changes  in  the  earth's  surface;  when  great 
forests  had  grown  up  rapidly  under  these  favor- 
able conditions,  it  was  necessary  that  the  surface 
of  the  land  should  be  depressed  beneath  the 
water  before  wood  had  decayed,  because  the 
wood  can  be  converted  into  coal  only  by  a  slow 
oxydation  under  water,  or  under  some  covering 
sufficient  to  protect  it  from  the  action  of  atmos- 
pheric air.  Then  the  land  must  rise  again  to 
receive  new  forest  growths,  and  again  be  de- 
pressed to  lay  down  a  new  coal  seam,  so  that 
sufficient  quantities  should  be  stored  in  any  one 
place.  The  amount  of  vegetable  matter  in  a 
single  coal-seam  six  inches  thick,  is  greater  than 
the  most  luxuriant  vegetation  of  the  present  day 
would  furnish  in  twelve  hundred  years,  as  seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  the  weight  of  the  wood  is  lost  by 
its  transformation  into  coal.  Boussingault  cal- 
culates that  luxuriant  vegetation  at  the  present 
takes  from  the  atmosphere  about  half  a  ton  of 
carbon  per  acre  annually,  or  fifty  tons  per  acre 
in  a  century.    But  fifty  tons  of  coal  spread  evenly 


THIRD  CRE/ITiyE  Dy4Y  109 

over  an  acre  of  surface,  would  make  a  layer  of 
less  than  one  third  of  an  inch.  But  suppose  it 
to  be  half  an  inch,  then  the  time  required  for  the 
accumulation  of  a  seam  of  coal  three  feet  thick — 
the  thinnest  which  can  be  worked  with  advantage 
— would  be  seven  thousand  two  hundred  years. 
If  the  aggregate  thickness  of  all  the  seams  of 
coal  in  any  basin  amount  to  sixty  feet,  the  time 
required  for  its  accumulation  would  be  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-four  thousand  years.  In  the 
coal  measures  of  Nova  Scotia  are  seventy-six 
seams  of  coal,  one  of  which  is  twenty-two  feet 
thick,  and  another  thirty-seven.  The  "Mammoth 
Vein"  at  Wilkesbarre,  Penn,,  is  twenty-nine  feet 
thick. 

Thus  the  Infinite  not  only  removed  the  car- 
bonic acid  from  the  atmosphere  and  so  prepared 
for  the  coming  of  man,  but  He  prepared  in  a  still 
more  remarkable  way,  by  storing  up  for  his  future 
use  that  which  should  be  the  very  cause  and 
means  of  his  christian  civilization.  It  will  be 
seen  on  the  slightest  reflection  that  this  marvel- 
ous century  could  not  have  become  what  it  is, 
without  the  use  of  coal.  That  wonderful  genie, 
more  wonderful  and  powerful  than  any  of  myth 
or  story,  which  is  evoked  from  the  impassive 
water,    would    not    have    come    forth    in     such 


no  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

strength  and  continuance  to  turn  all  the  wheels 
of  industry,  and  push  our  steamers,  and  print  our 
books,  unless  nature  had  filled  her  cellars  with 
the  black  food  on  which  steam  can  feed.  But 
who  told  nature  that  such  a  being,  who  could  use 
coal,  was  to  be  born  in  the  far-off  centuries? 
And  who  told  nature,  that  thousands  of  years 
after  man  had  appeared,  necessity  should  arise 
for  this  carbon  which,  was  worse  than  useless  in 
the  then  atmosphere  ?  Nature  is  never  provident, 
she  is  wastful;  nature  is  never  thoughtful,  but 
pursues  her  wonted  way  unconcerned  of  what 
may  be  thousands  of  years  hence.  In  the  pro- 
vision of  coal  there  is  as  certain  proof  of  kindly 
care,  as  there  is  in  the  dinner  which  the  hungry 
child  finds  has  been  made  ready  for  it  when  it 
returns  from  school.  The  coal  was  as  much 
planned  and  provided  for  the  nineteenth  century, 
as  the  timbers  which  are  cut  and  sawed  in  the 
far-away  forest,  were  planned  for  the  ship  that  is 
building  down  on  the  sea-board.  And  we  who 
can  look  back  upon  all  the  work  which  was  then 
transpiring,  and  who  know  what  vegetation  was 
then  preparing  for  us,  can  join  heartily  in  the 
divine  commendation  and  say — "it  was  good." 

But  now  candor  compels  us  to  acknowledge  a 
difficulty,  which  has  not  as  yet  been  satisfacforily 


THIRD  CREATINE  DAY  111 

removed.  Moses  says  that  the  highest  forms  of 
vegetable  life  appeared  on  the  third  day,  while 
geology  says  that  there  are  no  fossils  of  these 
highest  forms  such  as  the  fruit  tree  and  other 
exogens,  until  long  after  the  time  indicated  in  the 
record.  The  question  at  issue  is — did  fruit  trees, 
and  trees  whose  seed  is  enclosed  within  covering, 
appear  at  so  early  a  date?  Moses  says  yes, 
geology  says  no. 

Different  suggestions  have  been  made  to 
reconcile  the  two.  Guyot  suggests  that  Moses 
means  to  describe  vegetation  as  a  whole, 
and  not  the  particular  forms  which  appeared  at 
different  times;  he  describes  the  system  of  plants 
in  full  outline,  as  it  has  been  developed  from  the 
lowest  to  the  most  perfect  in  the  succession  of 
ages,  for  he  will  not  speak  of  the  subject  again 
in  the  remainder  of  the  narrative.  What  Moses 
has  to  say  about  plants  he  will  say  then,  but  he 
does  not  mean  that  all,  of  which  he  speaks, 
appeared  at  that  particular  period.  Dawson  on 
the  contrary,  says  that  higher  forms  of  life  than 
we  think,  may  have  flourished  in  the  earlier  ages ; 
the  progress  of  improvement  has  not  been  con- 
tinuous and  uninterrupted;  the  fact  that  a  cer- 
tain order  of  plants  or  animals  lived  in  one  age, 
is  no  proof  that  a  better  state  of  things  may  not 


112  JS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


have  existed  in  a  previous  age.  The  conditions 
for  plant  hfe  were  certainly  much  more  favora- 
ble then  than  now,  and  therefore,  even  higher 
forms  of  plant  life  than  any  that  we  are  familiar 
with  may  then  have  existed.  The  fact  that 
they  do  not  exist  now  signifies  nothing,  for  we 
know  that  whole  races  of  animals  have  been 
swept  out  of  existence,  leaving  no  successors. 
Furthermore,  we  know  that  each  form  of  life 
reached  its  highest  development  in  the  period 
when  it  was  dominant.  For  instance,  when  fishes 
reigned  supreme,  they  reached  greater  propor- 
tions than  at  any  subsequent  period.  Reptiles 
were  the  monarchs  in  the  period  named  for  them, 
and  were  then  much  larger  and  more  ferocious 
than  at  any  time  since;  so  of  land  animals.  Now 
if  that  be  true  of  animal  life,  why  may  it  not  be 
true  of  vegetable  life,  that  not  only  did  the 
highest  known  varieties  of  plant  life  exist  in  the 
period  mentioned  by  Moses — fruit  trees  and  all 
trees  whose  seed  is  enclosed  within  its  fruit,  but 
even  higher  forms  than  any  that  have  survived, 
because  then  was  the  period  of  special  plant 
development.? 

And  yet,  it  must  be  said  on  the  contrary, 
that  the  rocks  show  no  such  fossils,  as  they 
ought  to  do  if  these  had  existed.     There  cer- 


THIRD  CRE/ITiyE  DAY  111] 

tainly  is  a  difference  between  the  testimony 
of  Revelation  and  Science  on  this  point,  and  it 
is  only  right  that  we  frankly  acknowledge  it,  and 
then  wait  until  more  light  upon  the  reading  of 
the  Book  or  of  the  rocks,  shall  bring  them  into 
perfect  agreement.  We  want  no  plausible  recon- 
ciliation, this  suggests  that  the  two  have  been  en- 
emies; we  shall  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than 
the  perfect  agreement  and  concord  of  life-long 
friends.  All  that  the  Book  contains  has  not  yet 
been  learned,  and  surely  all  that  God  has  writ-^ 
ten  upon  the  rocks  has  not  been  deciphered. 
More  and  more  as  the  two  have  been  studied  in 
the  past,  have  they  been  found  to  be  in  perfect 
accord;  if  one  more  point  remains  on  which  they 
have  not  yet  been  read  alike,  we  have  the  right 
to  expect  from  all  the  history  of  the  past,  that 
this  point  also  will  melt  away,  if  we  patiently 
wait  for  more  light.  Some  day  science  will  flash 
such  light  upon  this  passage  as  will  make  it 
stand  out  bright  and  luminous;  somewhere  in 
the  archives  of  nature,  is  hidden  the  illustration 
which  will  fully  explain  this,  as  yet,  dark  pas- 
sage. All  of  us  remember  when  geology  was 
supposed  to  contradict  Genesis  at  almost  every 
point.  One  by  one,  these  points  of  disagree- 
ment have  disappeared  by  the  labors  of  sincere 


114  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC/ 

and  reverent  scholarship;  more  and  more  the 
wonders  of  this  chapter  are  coming  out  to  aston- 
ish the  world;  depth  beyond  depths  is  found  in 
this  record,  as  one  age  continues  after  another  to 
explore  its  contents.  And  this  proves  it  to  be 
the  work  of  God.  The  telescope,  the  micro- 
scope, the  scalpel,  the  retort  find  inexhaustible 
depths  of  meaning  where  previous  ages  saw 
nothing;  if  this  first  chapter  of  Genesis  be  the 
work  of  God,  we  should  expect  the  same  of  it. 
And  we  do  find  it  so.  This  age  has  found  far 
more  in  it  than  has  any  previous  age;  the  next 
age,  if  it  be  studious  and  reverent,  shall  yet  dis- 
cover more  than  have  we.  We  have  not  yet 
read  all.  And  if  there  be  still  an  apparent  dis- 
agreement between  the  Bible  and  our  Science, 
let  us  acknowledge  that  the  error  must  be,  where 
we  have  found  the  errors  of  previous  ages  were, 
not  in  the  Book  but  in  our  reading  of  it,  or  in 
our  interpretation  of  nature.  On  this  point 
therefore,  viz,  the  early  introduction  of  the  highest 
forms  of  plant  life,  we  will  frankly  admit  that 
more  needs  to  be  known,  before  we  can  read  the 
two  testimonies  alike.  But  let  it  be  remembered, 
that  in  the  great  scientific  principles  which  have 
so  far  been  discovered  in  the  record,  there  has 
been  found  to  be  perfect  agreement  in  all,  until 


THIRD  CREATINE  DAY  115 


we  come  to  this.  Perfect  agreement  on  all  the 
other  points,  most  plausible  reconciliation  on 
this;  but  as  reconciliation  is  not  agreement,  we 
prefer  to  let  the  divergence  stand  unreconciled, 
until  the  dawn  of  perfect  accord  shall  shine  upon 
it  to  melt  away  the  mist. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FOURTH  CREATIVE  DAY. 

And  God  said — /ei  luminaries  be  in  the  expanse  of 
the  heaven  to  divide  between  the  day  and  between  the 
night,  and  let  them  be  for  signs  and  seasons  and 
for  days  and  years;  and  let  them  be  for  light  in  the 
expanse  of  the  heaven,  to  give  light  upon  the 
earth:  and  it  was  so.  And  God  made  tivo  great 
lights,  the  greater  light  to  rule  the  day,  and  the  lesser 
to  rule  the  night;  he  made  the  stars  also.  And  God 
set  them  in  the  expanse  of  the  heaven  to  give  light 
upon  the  earth,  and  to  rule  over  the  day  and  over  the 
night,  and  to  divide  the  light  from  the  darkness ;  and 
God  saw  that  it  was  good. " 

Here  too,  as  everywhere  in  this  chapter,  we 
must  read  carefully  what  Moses  has  written. 
As  translated  in  the  Authorized  Version,  it 
might  seem  that  the  command  was  that'  the 
luminaries  should  now  appear  for  the  first  time; 
but  the  Hebrew  gives  no  such  meaning.  Liter- 
ally it  reads— "And  God  said — let  luminaries  be 
in  the  expanse  of  the  heavens,  for  the  separating 
between  the  day  and  between  the  night;"  that 

116 


FOURTH  CREATiyE  DAY  117 

is,  it  is  not  the  fact  of  their  creation  or  of  their 
appearance  which  is  stated;  but  simply  the  pur- 
pose, which  those  luminaries  are  to  fulfill.  In- 
deed the  creation  of  the  sun  and  the  moon,  as 
of  marine  vegetation  and  of  protozoan  life— all 
this  is  not  touched  upon  at  all.  Moses,  like  the 
United  States  survey  corps,  has  simply  indicated 
a  few  salient  points,  from  which  to  trian°juLite 
and  give  the  general  bearings,  but  has  left  the 
intermediate  spaces  to  be  surveyed  by  those  who 
shall  follow  after  to  fill  out  the  details  of  his 
great  map.  It  is  with  the  earth  wholly  and  the 
things  that  are  upon  it,  with  which  the  record 
has  to  do  after  the  prologue;  it  is  not  giving  any 
astronomy  of  the  heavens,  nor  of  any  biology  of 
by-gone  orders  of  life. 

Far  back  in  his  narrative,  Moses  told  us  that 
motion  was  imparted  to  the  etherial  fluid,  which 
filled  all  space,  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  accord 
ing  to  the  laws  then  imposed,  the  nebula  hy- 
pothesis explains  how  the  luminous  matter  con- 
centrated into  constellations  and  suns  and  plan- 
ets and  satellites.  That  Moses  could  not  have 
meant  to  refer  to  the  creation  of  the  sun  and 
moon,  might  have  been  seen  at  once,  if  students 
had  regarded  him  as  scientific;  this  would  have 
been  out  of  line  with  the  rest  of  his  record,  for  he 


118  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

is  confining  himself  wholly  to  the  earth.  What 
took  place  on  the  fourth  creative  day,  could 
therefore  not  have  been  something  up  in  the 
heavens  at  all,  but  something  upon  the  earth. 
What  was  this  change.^ 

It  has  been  thought  by  many,  that  up  to  this 
time  the  earth  had  been  enswathed  in  dense 
clouds  since  the  hot  steam  had  begun  to  con- 
dense into  vapor,  which  entirely  cut  off  the  light 
of  the  sun  and  moon  and  stars;  gradually  those 
clouds  thinned  out,  until  at  the  time  of  the  crea- 
tion of  the  plants  on  the  third  day,  there  was 
enough  light  that  could  struggle  through,  to 
minister  to  the  necessities  of  plant  life,  as  on  a 
cloudy  day  at  present.  But  now,  on  the  fourth 
day,  the  clouds  at  last  broke  away  and  the  sun 
and  moon  and  stars  appeared  in  the  sky.  But 
would  so  small  a  matter  as  the  breaking  up  of 
the  clouds,  be  worthy  of  a  whole  creative  day? 
Besides,  the  highest  forms  of  plant  life,  such  as 
the  fruit  trees,  could  not  have  thriven  without  the 
direct  rays  of  sunlight.  And  further,  simply  the 
clearing  away  of  the  clouds  and  bringing  in  of 
the  light  of  the  sun  and  moon,  could  not  possibly 
be  the  cause  of  the  seasons,  of  days,  or  years. 
Up  to  this  time,  the  record  seems  to  imply  there 
had  been  no  seasons,  and   whatever  the  change 


FOURTH  CREATiyE  DAY  119 

which  now  took  place,  it  was  tor  the  purpose  of 
creating  seasons.  Neither  could  the  mere 
absence  of  clouds,  create  any  signs  by  which  the 
years  could  be  marked  off.  So  small  a  cause  as 
the  cleanng  off  of  the  clouds,  is  not  adequate  to 
such  great  effects  as  were  to  be  produced  on  the 
fourth  day. 

Just  here  Prof.  Warring  argues  elaborately, 
and  to  the  mind  of  the  writer,  most  convincingly, 
that  a  great  change  took  place  in  the  earth  itself. 
Remember  what  was  to  be  accomplished — to 
divide  between  the  day  and  between  the  night, 
and  to  arrange  for  seasons,  and  create  signs 
whereby  the  seasons  and  days  and  years  should 
be  known.  All  this  could  be  produced,  says 
Warring,  only  by  the  inclination  of  the  earth's 
axis.  Let  us  here  recall  what  we  learned  at 
school.  The  days,  we  know,  are  caused  by  the 
rotation  of  the  earth  on  its  axis,  so  that  for  half 
of  the  time  one  hemisphere  is  brought  into  the 
light  of  the  sun,  while  the  other  is  turned  away 
and  is  therefore  in  darkness.  The  years  are 
caused  by  the  revolution  of  the  earth  in  its  orbit 
around  the  sun;  it  takes  36^34^  days  for  the 
earth  to  make  this  circuit  and  return  again  to 
the  same  spot  in  the  heavens.  But  neither  the 
earth's  rotation  nor    revolution    can    cause    the 


120  IS  MOSFS  SCIENTIFIC? 

seasons.  If  only  these  two  motions  affected 
the  earth,  there  would  be  no  change  in  the 
climate  throughout  the  whole  year,  and  there 
would  be  no  difference  in  the  length  of  the  days 
and  nights.  In  our  latitude,  it  would  be  per- 
petual Spring,  and  the  days  would  all  be  of  the 
same  length,  as  also  the  nights.  There  would 
be  no  signs,  by  which  we  could  know  when  one 
year  closed  and  another  began,  if  there  were 
no  seasons,  and  we  should  have  to  depend  upon 
astronomers  to  tell  us  when  to  measure  off  an- 
other year;  we  shoultf  soon  lose  account  of 
dates,  and  chronology  would  be  impossible.  But 
what  causes  all  this  beneficent  change,  without 
which  life  would  stagnate.''  It  is  the  inclination 
of  the  earth's  axis,  because  instead  of  being  per- 
pendicular to  the  plane  of  its  orbit,  it  is  inclined 
at  an  angle  of  23^^  degrees.  Because  of  this 
inclination,  our  northern  pole  is  for  a  part  of  the 
year  turned  toward  the  sun,  so  that  the  sun's 
rays  fall  upon  the  northern  hemisphere  more 
directly,  the  days  are  longer,  and  we  receive 
more  heat;  it  is  then  summer  with  us,  while  it 
is  winter  in  the  southern  hemisphere.  Six 
months  from  that  time,  the  north  pole  is  turned 
away  from  the  sun,  the  rays  fall  upon  us  more 
obliquely,  the  days  are  shorter,  we    receive  less 


FOURTH  CREATINE  DAY  121 


heat,  and  it  is  winter  with  us,  but  summer  at  the 
antipodes.  Half  way  between  these  two  points 
is  Fall  on  the  one  side  and  Spring  on  the  other. 
Thus  we  have  the  changes  which  make  our 
seasons ;  make  the  difference  in  the  length  of  days 
and  nights,  and  we  have  the  signs  by  which  every 
one  knows  when  the  new  year  begins,  and  ac- 
curate chronology  is  possible  to  all. 

Now  recall  once  more,  that  we  have  accepted 
LaPlace's  nebular  h\pothesis,  as  do  scholars  gen- 
erally. The  earth  was  thrown  off  from  the  sun 
in  the  form  of  a  ring  which  broke  up  into  a 
spiral,  that  finally  settled  down  into  a  great 
globe,  revolving  upon  an  axis  of  its  own.  But 
this  axis  must  at  first  have  been  parallel  to  the 
axis  of  the  sun,  and  if  so  it  must  have  been  per- 
pendicular to  the  plane  of  its  orbit.  Mathe- 
matical demonstration  proves  that  the  earth 
must  have  started  off  on  a  perpendicular  axis, 
that  is,  one  exactly  parallel  to  that  of  the  sun; 
it  could  not  have  been  otherwise.  The  motion 
which  the  earth  received  from  the  sun,  must  have 
been  in  exactly  the  same  direction  which  the  sun 
itself  had,  because  the  sun  could  impart  no 
other,  and  the  earth  could  not  of  itself  change 
it;  the  earth  had  to  continue  as  it  began,  until 
some  great  cause  should  come  in    to   produce   a 


123  is  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


change.  But  that  motion  must  have  been  a 
revolution  on  an  axis  perpendicular  with  the 
plane  of  the  orbit  around  the  sun. 

We  find  however,  that  the  earth  is  not  now 
revolving  upon  a  perpendicular  axis,  but  upon  an 
inclined  axis.  A  great  change  has  taken  place 
sometime  between  the  beginning  of  its  separate 
existence  and  now,  for  it  is  now  inclined  at  an 
angle  of  23^^  degrees;  when  did  that  change  take 
place?  On  the  fourth  creative  day,  says  War- 
ring, for  then  Moses  declares  took  place  those  ef- 
fects which  this  inclination  alone  can  produce;  it 
is  this  inclination  which  causes  the  seasons,  which 
makes  the  difference  in  the  length  of  the  days 
and  nights,  and  which  gives  us  the  signs,  by  which 
all  can  know  when  the  old  year  ends  and  the  new 
begins.  But  if  the  nebula  hypothesis  be  true, 
it  is  mathematically  impossible  that  this  incli- 
nation could  have  existed  at  the  beginning  of  the 
earth's  existence. 

This  view  is  corroborated  by  geology.  Geol- 
ogy finds  that  up  to  a  certain  period  in  the 
earth's  history,  "there  were  no  zones  of  climate;" 
the  fauna  and  flora  were  not  confined  to  certain 
belts,  as  now,  but  the  same  plants  thrived  at 
Spitzbergen,  which  is  almost  the  northernmost 
land  discovered,  and  which  is  now  covered  with 


FOURTH  CREATIVE  DAY  123 

immense  glaciers,  and  where  a  few  diminutive 
plants  spring  up  and  mature  in  a  month  or  six 
weeks  of  the  summer,  whose  mean  temperature 
of  its  three  summer  months,  is  only  two  degrees 
above  the  freezing  point; — the  same  plants 
once  thrived  in  Spitzbergen  as  did  in  Florida. 
Dana  says  "The  coal  beds  of  the  Arctic,  are 
evidence  of  a  profuse  growth  of  vegetation; 
through  the  whole  hemisphere,  and  we  may 
say  world,  there  was  one  uniform  type  of  veg- 
etation, and  there  were  genial  waters."  The 
conditions  of  life  in  latitude  70^  to  80^  were 
the  same  as  those  in  latitude  30^  and  40^;  that 
is,  the  climate  of  the  mast  northern  boundaries 
of  Greenland,  was  like  that  of  the  United 
States  between  Illinois  and  Texas. 

Now  consider  what  all  this  means!  It  means 
that  a  great  change  has  occurred  between  that 
time  and  now,  a  change  in  the  cause  of  climate. 
What  is  the  cause  of  climate.^  The  ice  and 
snow  of  upper  Greenland  do  not  produce  the 
cold,  but  are  produced  by  it.  What  makes  this 
extreme  cold?  It  is  the  long  night  of  four 
months  of  darkness  with  two  more  months  of 
twilight,  during  which  there  is  no  heat  received 
from  the  sun  And  what  makes  that  long  night 
of  nearly  six  months?     Of  course  it  is  the  inch- 


124  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

nation  of  the  earth's  axis,  which  causes  the 
north  pole  to  be  turned  away  from  the  sun,  so 
as  to  receive  none  of  its  direct  rays  during  half 
of  the  year.  But  there  was  a  time  when  it  was 
not  so,  for  the  plants  and  animals  which  can 
live  only  in  warm  climates,  then  lived  far  up  to 
the  north.  At  that  time  there  could  have  been 
no  long  cold  night  of  six  months,  as  now,  be- 
cause these  tropical  plants  and  animals  could 
not  have  lived  under  such  conditions.  But  if 
it  be  said,  that  it  was  the  earth's  own  internal 
heat  which  raised  the  temperature  sufficiently 
high, yet  the  long  nights  of  six  months  would 
still  make  it  impossible  for  these  flora  and  fauna 
to  survive.  If  the  axis  had  then  been  inclined 
as  now,  there  could  not  have  been  the  luxuriant 
growth  of  forests  to  produce  the  excellent  coal 
which  is  found  at  Spitsbergen,  for  such  forests 
could  not  have  grown  where  six  months  of  the 
year  are  night,  and  where  for  two  more  months 
the  sun  is  but  a  small  distance  above  the  hori- 
zon. So  that  by  the  demonstration  of  science 
as  well  as  from  mathematical  deductions 
from  the  nebula  hypothesis,  there  must  have 
been  a  time  when  the  earth  did  rotate  on  per- 
pendicular axis;  but  it  is  not  so  rotating  now; 
a  great  change  must  have  taken  place.  When? 
On  the  fourth  creative  day. 


FOURTH  CRE/tTIVE  DAY  125 

Then  God  spake,  and  some  causes  for  tipping 
the  earth  must  have  conspired  either  rapidly, 
or,  as  we  usually  find,  slowly  through  the  long 
centuries.  When  the  axis  had  been  so  inclined, 
then  the  sun  and  moon  would  do  as  commanded 
to  do  in  the  fourth  day;  then  they  would  be  for 
signs  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days  and  years. 
Then  for  the  first  time,  the  seasons  would  regu- 
larly follow  each  other;  then  they  would  divide 
the  time  between  the  days  and  between  the 
nights,  giving  the  most  now  to  the  day,  and 
now  to  the  night;  then  they  would  give  the 
signs  which  were  necessary,  so  that  we  might 
mark  off  the  years,  which  otherwise  would 
glide  away  as  unseen  and  unknown  as  the  pre- 
cession of  the  equinoxes.  Then  too,  the  plants 
and  animals,  which  could  have  existed  in  the 
upper  latitudes  while  the  earth  was  revolving 
on  perpendicular  axis,  must  have  perished,  as  we 
now  find  them  to  have  done,  and  all  would  be 
cold  and  still,  covered  only  by  immense 
glaciers. 

"And  it  was  so."  Our  observation  con- 
firms the  record,  and  we  find  it  is  so.  Now  life 
ceases  to  be  one  continuous  and  monotonous 
existence,  as  it  would  have  been  if  the  axis  of 
the  earth  had  not  been   inclined.     The    2ist    of 


126  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

March  would  have  stretched  on  monotonously 
until  it  met  the  21st  of  September;  all  would 
have  been  unvarying  Springtime  with  us,  with- 
out summer  or  winter;  the  days  would  have 
been  exactly  equal,  and  so  would  have  been  the 
nights;  no  long  days  of  summer  in  which  to 
watch  the  gorgeous  sunsets  and  enjoy  its  pleas- 
ures; no  long  evenings  of  winter,  with  their 
blazing  fires  and  the  happy  fireside;  no  vigor- 
ous growth  and  rich  fruitage  of  summer,  and  no 
tonic  and  recuperation  from  the  winters  cold. 
But  now  the  inclination  of  earth's  axis  has  taken 
place,  and  our  life  is  varied  and  full  of  change, 
and  consequently  vigorous  and  active. 

A  negative  accuracy  occurs  right  here  which 
must  not  be  overlooked.  This  record  has  com  3 
down  to  us  through  the  hands  of  Jews,  for  whom 
it  was  first  prepared.  But  with  the  Jews,  the 
most  important  measures  of  time  were  the  week 
and  the  month.  Every  week  brought  them  back 
their  holy  Sabbath  day  of  rest,  when  all  work 
was  prohibited.  The  month  brought  them  their 
festivals  and  feasts,  which  were  faithfully  ob- 
served. But  strange  to  say,  as  the  ancient  Jew 
must  have  reasoned,  there  is  no  mention  of  their 
most  important  time  measures.  Days,  years  and 
seasons  are  mentioned;   why  did  not   Moses  em- 


FOURTH  CREATINE  DAY  137 

phasize  the  most  important  periods  of  all — the 
week  and  the  month?  Because,  he  wou|d  then 
have  been  most  unscientific.  The  seasons,  and 
days,  and  years  are  measured  off  by  the  earth 
itself,  but  not  the  weeks  and  months.  If  he 
had  yielded  to  his  Jewish  prejudices,  he  would 
have  committed  the  first  scientific  blunder  in  the 
record,  and  so  have  brought  it  into  discredit; 
but  here  the  same  accuracy  is  found  in  what  is 
omitted,  as  in  what  is  given. 

But  Moses  goes  still  farther.  He  has  just 
said  what  the  luminaries  were  for,  but  the  ques- 
tion will  surely  arise — who  made  them?  Were 
the  sun  and  moon  self-originating,  if  so  they 
are  worthy  objects  of  worship.  Fire-worship- 
ers and  pantheists  will  surely  make  them  the 
objects  of  divine  homage.  No,  says  Moses,  they 
are  not  self  originative ;  they  are  not  gods;  the 
one  God  made  them,  Elohim  is  his  name;  wor- 
ship Him.  "He  made  the  stars  also;"  do  not 
cast  the  horoscope;  do  not  consult  the  stars  as 
to  your  future,  for  they  cannot  foretell  events. 
"In  six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth 
the  sea  and  all  that  in  than  is." 

Great  perplexities  have  arisen  from  adding  to 
what  the  record  gives,  which  has  then  made  it 
seem  full  of  errors;  but   the   fault   is  then,  not 


128  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

of  the  record,  but  of  the  additions  which  have 
been  gratuitously  made.  It  has  been  supposed, 
for  instance,  that  Moses  intended  to  say  that 
the  sun  and  moon  were  created  on  the  fourth 
day,  when  the  fact  is  that  he  has  said  nothing 
whatever  about  their  creation.  Sometimes  the 
translators  have  made  these  additions  which 
have  lead  the  English  readers  astray.  In  the 
14th  verse,  the  translators  have  added  the  word 
— "there" — which  is  not  in  the  original  at  all; 
"and  God  said — let  t/iere  be  lights  in  the  firma- 
ment of  the  heaven,"  and  this  has  led  to  much 
confusion.  If  we  will  read  the  account  as  given, 
no  difficulty  will  be  met.  Moses  simply  intends 
to  assign  the  purpose,  which  these  luminaries  are 
to  fulfill,  viz.  to  divide  between  the  day  and  be- 
tween the  night,  etc.,  and  so  the  record  reads, 
if  we  will  adhere  closely  to  what  has  been  writ- 
ten. "And  God  said — let  luminaries  be  in  the 
expanse  of  the  heaven  for  the  dividing,  between 
the  day  and  the  dividing  between  the  night, 
etc.  ;"  not  their  creation,  but  their  object  and 
purpose  are  here  given.  And  likewise  in  the 
i6th  verse,  another  gratuitous  difficulty  has 
been  made,  as  though  it  was  stated  absolutely, 
that  "God  (then)  made  two  great  lights,"  whereas 
the  purpose  only  is   given,  viz,  to   rule   the   day 


FOURTH  CRE/lTlyE  DAY  129 

and  the  night,  and  this  is  clear,  if  read  connect- 
edly— "and  God  made  two  great  lights,  the 
greater  to  rule  the  day,  the  lesser  to  rule  the 
night."  But  what  about  the  stars?  "He  made 
the  stars  also."  Most  of  the  difficulties  with 
the  chapter,  have  risen  from  reading  into  it 
what  is  not  there,  or  from  failing  to  note  care- 
fully what  is  said,  and  so  the  words  have  been 
robbed  of  their  precise  meaning. 

But  is  the  purpose  which  the  sun  and  moon 
were  to  fulfill,  worthy  of  so  great  a  creation? 
"And  God  set  them  in  the  expanse  of  the  heaven 
to  give  h'ght  upon  the  earth,  and  to  rule  over 
the  day  and  over  the  night,  and  to  divide  the 
light  from  the  darkness."  Can  it  be  possible 
that  all  that  the  sun  and  the  moon  were  created 
for,  was  to  serve  this  little  earth  of  ours,when  ours 
is  not  by  any  means  the  most  important  planet 
in  the  system?  Our  planet  receives  only  one  two 
millionth  of  the  sun's  rays  of  light  and  heat,  and 
so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  all  the  rest  are  lost. 
It  seems  therefore  that  a  scientific  mistake  has 
here  been  made,  for  it  cannot  be  conceived 
that  God  would  create  the  sun  for  a  purpose 
which  causes  the  loss  of  nearly  all  its  benefit. 
But  this  objection  again  reads  into  the  record 
what  is  not  there.     It  assumes  that  Moses  is  in- 


130  is  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

tending  to  tell  us  all  that  the  sun  and  moon 
were  created  for,  when  the  truth  is  that  he  has 
carefully  explained  all  along,  that  he  is  describ- 
ing only  what  concerns  the  earth.  The  author 
has  not  undertaken  to  tell  us  about  the  heaven, 
except  as  this  concerns  the  earth ;  he  has  told 
us  nothing  concerning  the  sun,  neither  the 
manner  of  its  creation,  nor  the  time,  only  as  it 
relates  to  that  which  is  being  fitted  to  become 
the  abode  of  man.  So  far  as  Moses  has  said  to 
the  contrary,  the  sun  may  have  a  thousand  other 
purposes  to  fulfill  toward  the  other  planets,  and 
the  starry  heavens.  All  that  is  here  given,  is 
what  the  sun  does  for  the  earth,  and  that  is  to 
give  light  and  therefore  heat;  to  divide  between 
the  day  and  between  the  night ;  to  be  for  signs 
and  for  seasons,  and  for  days  and  years,  and  to 
rule  over  the  day.  What  other  purpose  does 
the  sun  accomplish  in  relation  to  the  earth.''  If 
Moses  was  giving  us  a  treatise  upon  astronomy, 
we  might  easily  convict  him  of  error;  but  when 
he  is  confining  himself  strictly  to  what  relates 
to  the  earth,  what  mistake  has  he  made  either 
in  assertion  or  in  omission? 

"And  God  saw  that  it  was  good."  How  good 
this  arrangement  is,  may  be  somewhat  realized 
upjn  a  little  reflection.      Whatever  was    caused 


FOURTH  CREATiyE  DAY  131 

to  begin  on  this  fourth  day,  whether  the  change 
in  the  earth's  axis  or  something  else,  this  cer- 
tainly did  begin  according  to  Moses,  viz,  the 
seasons.  But  the  seasons  include  not  only  the 
variety  of  conditions,  so  that  life  shall  be  more 
agreeable,  but  also  the  change  in  temperature 
and  moisture.  To  sustain  life  on  the  earth,  it 
is  necessary  that  there  shall  be  relatively  the 
same  amount  of  heat  every  year  to  produce  and 
ripen  our  harvests,  and  the  same  amount  of 
rainfall,  which  in  this  section  o^f  the  country  is 
about  40  inches  annually.  It  could  be  easily 
imagined  how  greatly  this  equilibrium  could  be 
disturbed;  indeed  it  is  one  of  the  proofs  of  the 
direct,  preserving  care  of  God,  that  the  amount 
of  our  annual  heat  and  rain  are  so  even  and 
regular.  The  heat  at  the  sun,  mounts  up  to  a 
hundred  thousand  degrees;  the  space  between 
the  sun  and  the  earth,  has  a  temperature  hun- 
dreds of  degrees  below  zero.  But  the  tempera- 
ture on  our  earth  must  be  confined  within  the 
very  narrow  limit  of  a  hundred  degrees.  To 
maintain  life  herq,  the  temperature  must  not 
generally  range  above  135,  nor  below  35.  A 
few  degrees  more  or  less  of  heat,  or  a  few  inches 
more  or  less  of  rainfall,  would  seriously  interfere 
with    our  harvests,  and   completely   demoralize 


132  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

all  our  operations.  That  we  may  live  at  all,  and 
especially  live  happily,  it  is  necessary  that  the 
nice  balance  of  heat  and  moisture  shall  be  care- 
full}'  preserved.  And  this  is  done  by  the  seasons. 
The  thermometers  and  measures  are  carefully 
and  constantly  consulted  by  nature,  and  the 
general  average  maintained.  If  we  stop  to  con- 
sider that  our  present  environment  must  be 
strictly  and  invariably  preserved,  that  our  lives 
may  pass  smoothly  and  peacefully,  we  can  but 
reaffirm  the  divine  commendation  and  say — it  is 
good. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


FIFTH  CREATIVE  DAY. 


"And  God  said — 'let  the  waters  swarm  with 
living  creatures  that  creep,  and  let  fliers  fly  above 
the  earth,  on  the  face  of  the  expanse  of  heaven; 
a?id  God  created  great  sea  monsters,  and  every  living 
creature  that  crawls,  with  which  the  waters  swarm, 
after  their  kind,  and  every  winged  flier  after  its  kind; 
and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And  God  blessed  them 
saying  be  fruitful  and  multiply,  and  fill  the  waters  in 
the  seas;  and  let  the  fliers  multiply  in  the  earth. " 

The  earth's  crust  is  a  bound  volume,  having 
as  many  leaves  as  there  are  strata.  This  volume 
is  nature's  great  herbarium,  in  which  she  has 
preserved  either  the  fossils  themselves,  or  their 
imprint  upon  its  pages.  The  leaf  or  grass  fell 
in  the  soft  mud;  the  fish,  animal  or  bird  laid 
down  its  body,  which  the  waters  reverently  buried, 
and  then  the  coffin  was  turned  into  rock  and 
became  the  sarcophagus,  where  these  remains 
have  been  safely  buried  and  preserved,  until  the 
geologist  opens  that  sarcophagus  with  his  ex- 
ploring  hammer,  or  the  quarryman  irreverently 

133 


]34  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

blows  up  this  sealed  tomb  with  his  dynamite, 
and  there  are  the  skeletons,  or  their  imprint  to 
show  us  what  kinds  of  life  prevailed  on  the 
earth  at  the  time  when  these  several  strata 
were  deposited.  It  only  remams  now  to  deter- 
mine the  relative  time,  when  those  strata  were 
laid  down,  and  we  can  easily  read  backward 
this  accurate  and  illustrated  history  of  the  earth's 
past.  Often,  instead  of  the  skeleton  itself  will 
be  found  the  footprint  of  the  animal  which  had 
stepped  on  the  yielding  soil  to  seek  its  prey  or 
indulge  in  its  clumsy  gambols,  or  where  the  bird 
had  walked  on  the  muddy  beach,  whither  it  had 
come  to  drink  or  bathe.  Like  the  clay  tablets 
found  in  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  on  whose  soft 
surface  the  strange  hieroglyphics  had  been  im- 
pressed, which  were  then  baked  so  that  these 
records  still  read  to  us  the  events  of  the  long 
past,  so  these  tablets  of  nature  also  preserve  for 
us  the  hieroglyphics,  by  which  we  can  read  the 
history  of  the  life  which  then  prevailed,  and  be- 
fore they  passed  away,  left  their  biographies  for 
us  in  the  rocks. 

Dana  says,  geology  applies  only  to  the  last  of 
the  third  creative  day,  to  the  fifth,  and  to  the 
sixth.  Guyot  says — "The  fifth  and  sixth  days 
offer  no  difficulties,  for  they  unfold   the    succes- 


FIFTH  CREATIVE  DAY  135 

sive  creation  of  various  tribes  and  animals  which 
people  the  water,  the  air  and  the  land,  in  the 
precise  order  indicated  by  geology."  We  should 
have  expected  just  what  Guyot  tells  us,  for  we 
have  seen  that  the  record,  thus  far  has  given  us 
the  events  in  the  precise  order  indicated  by 
science  in  general. 

We  are  now  approaching  the  great  temple  in 
which  Life  is  to  be  enshrined — the  temple  for 
which  the  earth  has  been  preparing  through  all 
the  previous  ages.  The  beautiful  portico  we 
entered  on  the  third  creative  day;  now  we  are 
to  cross  the  threshold  and  stand  in  the  presence 
of  that  wonderful,  mysterious  thing  we  call 
sentient,  volitional  Life.  At  first,  it  will  be  in 
the  outer  temple  into  which  the  fifth  day  will 
introduce  us,  where  the  Levites  of  the  lower 
orders  stand,  and  minister,  and  furnish  forth  the 
table  with  the  bread,  and  fill  the  lamps  with  oil. 
On  the  sixth  day,  we  shall  enter  in  still  farther, 
where  the  higher  orders  of  priests  serve,  and 
finally  we  shall  enter  the  holiest  of  all,  where 
the  High  Priest  of  nature — Man — passes  behind 
the  veil,  to  worship  and  commune  with  his  God, 
but  yet  not  without  blood,  "the  blood  of  a 
Lamb,  without  blemish  and  without  spot." 

This  great  creation  of  sentient,  volitional  life, 


136  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

is  also  described  with  the  word — bara.  Three 
times  we  meet  this  suggestive  word,  in  this 
chapter,  first  when  original  matter  was  called 
into  existence  out  of  nothing;  second,  when 
animal  life  which  is  the  first  and  lowest  form  of 
real  life,  is  put  forth  on  the  earth;  third  when 
man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  is  en- 
dowed with  a  spiritual  nature,  the  breath  of  the 
divine  Spirit.  Far  back  in  the  record,  when 
motion  was  to  be  imparted  to  matter,  the  Spirit 
of  God — "moved  upon  the  face  of  the  fluid;" 
but  when  man  is  to  be  endowed  with  something, 
which  mere  matter  cannot  have,  with  something 
more  than  motion,  even  a  moral  nature,  then  it 
was  by  the  breath  of   God. 

Plant  life  is  only  half  life;  it  has  the  power  of 
organization,  as  distinguished  from  the  power  of 
crystallization,  but  it  has  no  motion,  no  volition, 
no  brain;  the  plant  is  therefore  only  the  perys- 
tyle  to  this  temple,  and  the  word  "bara,"  is  not 
applied  to  it.  "Bara"  indicates  original  creation, 
something  called  into  being  which  had  not  ex- 
isted before.  Matter  is  not  eternal,  but  is  called 
into  existence  by  the  command  of  God;  therefore 
"bara"  is  used.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  sponta- 
neous generation;  life  cannot  be  evolved  out  of 
non-living;   God  created  it,  and  again — "bara." 


FIFTH  CREATINE  DAY  13? 

Man  cannot  be  evolved  out  of  the  lower  creation; 
the  human  spirit  is  not  a  development  of  the 
animal  soul;  the  endowment  of  a  nature  in  the 
image  of  God,  is  not  reached  from  below,  but 
is  a  new  creation  of  God,  and  is  again  expressed 
by — "bara."  It  is  remarkable  that  these  three 
instances  in  which  this  special  word  is  used,  are 
exactly  the  points  where  science  acknowledges 
that  it  knows  nothing  to  the  contrary,  and  can 
know  nothing  Science  assumes  a  basis  of  a 
creation;  it  must  have  a  starting  point,  and 
after  that,  it  can  proceed  step  by  step;  but  of 
that  starting  point  it  can  assert  nothing.  That 
starting  point  is  described  by  this  mysterious 
word — "bara."  Again  science  finds  a  gulf  which 
it  cannot  pass,  at  the  point  where  "bara"  is  again 
used,  viz,  at  the  introduction  of  life.  Many  and 
repeated  attempts  have  been  made  to  obtain  a 
spontaneous  generation,  where  even  the  slightest 
and  lowest  form  of  life  shall  come  forth  directly 
from  non-living  matter,  Some  physicists  have 
at  times  thought  they  had  been  able  to  accom- 
plish it,  but  Mr,  Huxley  acknowledges  that  where 
the  water  has  been  carefully  boiled  so  as  to 
destroy  all  possible  germs  of  life,  and  where  the 
experiment  has  been  hermetically  sealed,  sothat 
the   atmosphere   could   communicate    no    living 


IS  MOSES  scientific:' 


germs,  every  such  attempt  has  proved  most  con- 
clusively that  spontaneous  generation  is  impos- 
sible. At  this  stage,  Moses  brings  in  the  direct 
creation  from  non-existence  by  "bara,"  And 
at  that  still  more  mysterious  point,  where  animal 
life  joins  on  to  divine  life;  where  a  moral  nature 
is  discovered,  where  a  conscience  feels  the  sense 
of — "ought,"  where  right  can  be  distinguished 
from  wrong,  where  the  happy  possessor  of  this 
nature  can  pray,  can  hold  intercourse  with  the 
invisible  world, — at  that  point  again,  science 
steps  back  and  bows  in  the  presence  of  this  mys- 
tery, but  can  explain  nothing;  and  this  also  is 
described  by  "bara."  The  origin  of  matter,  the 
origin  of  volitional  life,  and  the  origin  of  a 
moral  nature,  are  all  a  direct  and  new  creation 
of  God;  and  this  Moses  indicates  by  his  triple 
use  of — "bara." 

The  record  now  tells  us  not  only  of  the  intro- 
duction of  animated  life  into  the  world,  but  of 
the  order  of  its  introduction.  Here  will  be  the 
crucial  test;  can  Moses  successfully  meet  it.? 
On  the  question  of  the  order  of  the  mtroduction 
of  life,  geology  can  speak  with  positiveness;  it 
knows  precisely  what  species  came  first  and 
what  last.  On  the  next  page  is  a  chart  giv- 
ing   the   known     order,    which    was     prepared 


t'lFTH  CREATIVE  DAY 


139 


with  no  thought  of  this  first  chapter  of  Genesis; 
if  Moses  does  not  agree  with  Dana,  then  so 
much  the  worse  for  Moses,  because  Dana  is 
correct.  According  to  geology,  the  first  order 
of  life  that  was  introduced  was  the  general  class 
of  invertebrates,  which  includes  the  three  sub- 
orders of  mollusks,  radiates  and  articulates.    The 

CHART 
THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  LIFE. 


MOLLUSKS 


From  Dana's  Manual  of  Geology. 


next  class  was  that  of  fishes,  then  of  reptiles, 
mammals,  and  lastly  man.  Birds,  which  are  not 
given  on  the  chart,  were  introduced  between  the 
age  of  reptiles  and  that  of  mammals,  but  birds 
and  insects  did  not  reach  their  culmination  until 
the  age  of  man.  The  horizontal  bands  on  the 
chart  represent  the  ages  m  succession;  the  ver- 
tical, which  are  black,    correspond   to   different 


140  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

groups  of  animals,  and  give  the  relative  time  of 
their  introduction,  as  also  the  periods  of  their 
culmination. 

Does  the  chart  of  Moses  agree  with  this?  It 
will  now  be  necessary  that  we  learn  exactly  what 
Moses  means  in  his  classification,  and  we  must 
read  him  with  the  same  rigorous  precision  as 
we  do  a  geologist.  It  will  be  necessary  there- 
fore, that  we  examine  his  terms  very  closely  and 
get  at  their  root  meaning,  as  well  as  the  meaning 
which  they  have  elsewhere.  Literally  the  20th 
verse  reads — "And  God  said — let  the  waters 
creep  with  creeping  things  of  life,  and  let  winged 
creatures  upon  the  earth,  wing  upon  the  surface 
of  the  expanse  of  the  heavens."  By  the  first 
is  of  course  understood  that  the  waters  shall  be 
full  of  these  creeping  creatures,  or  swarm  with 
them,  but  the  root  idea  is  that  they  creep.  In 
Lev.  II:  20-30  various  kmds  of  these  are  given, 
but  it  must  be  noticed  that  they  all  creep,  and 
are  those  which  are  exceedingly  prolific,  as  for 
instance — grasshoppers,  locusts,  lizzards  and 
snails.  Now  Moses  says  that  it  is  the  waters 
which  bring  forth  these  creatures  in  such  swarms 
and  not  the  land  or  the  air.  The  class,  which  he 
says  first  came  forth,  had  three  charactersitics 
— they  were  water   animals;   they   swarmed    in 


FIFTH  CREATIVE  DAY  141 

such  swarms  as  to  make  the  water  fairly  "creep" 
with  them;  and  they  creep  or  crawl.  Science 
has  a  more  specific  name  for  the  animals  that 
first  appeared,  and  calls  them — invertebrates. 
But  these  also  were  water  animals;  they  were 
exceedingly  prolific,  but  the  first  invertebrates 
did  not  creep. 

As  will  be  remembered  from  what  was  said  in 
Chapter  V.  the  first  creatures  that  appeared  were 
the  protozoans — first  livers, — but  these  did  not 
creep,  they  were  what  might  be  called  aggluti- 
native, for  like  the  corals,  they  glued  their  shells 
fast  to  the  shells  of  others,  and  so  built  up  the 
chalk  formations  for  instance,  and  many  lime- 
stone formations.  However  after  the  protozoan, 
says  science  came  the  other  invertebrates,  which 
do  creep,  and  have  power  of  motion,  and  these 
ha-ve  all  the  characteristics  of  the  animal,  which 
Moses  so  carefully  describes;  they  were  water 
animals,  they  were  swarmers,  and  they  creep. 
Here  then  is  perfect  agreement  between  Genesis 
and  science  as  to  the  class  of  invertebrates  which 
appeared  in  due  time.  Both  say  that  the  first 
class  was  the  invertebrate;  but  science  says 
those  which  appeared  the  very  first,  did  not 
creep.  Very  well,  says  Moses,  I  am  speaking 
of  invertebrates  too,  but  I  am    not   speaking    of 


142  is  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

the  first  class  that  ever  appeared;  I  liavc  not 
descended  to  these  particulars,  for  lain  not  fix- 
ing a  text  book  on  zoology,  but  am  giving  a  rapid 
sketch  of  the  history  of  the  earth.  The  order 
of  the  introduction  of  life  was  first  invertebrates, 
but  the  subdivision  to  which  1  refer,  was  not 
those  minute  animals  which  have  no  power  of 
motion;  the  first  subdivision  of  invertebrates 
with  which  I  begin,  is  that  immense  class  which 
do  have  the  power  of  motion,  the  creeping 
creatures.  We  can  see  at  once  why  Moses  in- 
serts that  discriminating  word — "creeping,"  for 
if  he  had  not  done  so,  he  would  not  have  been 
scientific.  The  protozoans  had  long  preceded 
even  the  rise  of  the  dry  land  above  the  ocean; 
they  are  supposed  to  have  begun  in  the  later 
part  of  what  is  called  the  Azoic  age,  that  is  the 
age  which  was  lifeless  except  for  these  minute 
animals.  It  is  of  the  fifth  day  animals  of  which 
Moses  is  speaking,  and  if  he  had  not  inserted 
that  qualifying  word,  but  had  said  that  animal 
life  in  general  began  at  this  period,  he  would 
have  been  found  to  have  been  in  error  by  later 
science.  The  animals  which  began  life  on  this 
fifth  creative  day  were  invertebrates,  but  they 
were  distinguished  from  those  minute  forms 
which  preceded  them  by  having    true  power    of 


FIFTH  CREATIVE  DAY  143 

locomotion.  Put  in  the  word  which  Moses  in- 
serts, and  he  is  exactly  in  agreement  with 
science;  but  overlook  the  scientific  value  of — 
"creeping,"  and  you  bring  Moses  into  conflict 
with  science. 

The  invertebrates,  thus  introduce  the  great 
order  of  general  animal  life  on  the  earth.  But 
there  is  a  general  class  of  life,  also  animal,  which 
is  not  strictly  on  the  earth,  but  above  it.  Moses 
says  the  command  was  to  the  winged,  as  well  as 
to  the  creeping  creatures,  to  come  forth;  and  it 
was  so.  This  20th  verse  therefore  is  a  general 
introduction  of  creeping  life,  and  of  winged  life, 
both  appearing  on  the  same  day,  but  the  creep- 
ing before  the  winged,  which  is  perfectly  correct. 
What  these  winged  creatures  were,  the  record 
does  not  tell  us,  but  biology  says  they  were  not 
birds,  for  these  appeared  later.  Moses  is  labor- 
ing at  a  greater  disadvantage  than  modern 
scientists;  he  has  no  strict  and  scientific  nomen- 
clature at  his  command.  The  word  he  used,  is 
simply  one  that  expressed  something  that  flies, 
whether  a  vertebrated  bird,  or  insect  or  even  a 
flying  reptile.  Next  after  the  water  swarmers, 
which  science  specifies  as  invertebrates,  are  fly- 
ing things,  and  this  is  perfectly  correct  as  seen  by 
the  table  of  Mr.  Huxley  on  page  147. 


144  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC/ 

After  the  invertebrates,  says  science,  came 
fishes  and  reptiles;  and  Moses  says  the  same — 
"and  God  created  great  sea-monsters  and  every 
creature  that  crawls,  with  which  the  waters 
swarm."  Still  the  creatures  are  water  animals, 
but  of  a  higher  order.  This  class  has  been  sub- 
divided, for  convenience  into  the  two  orders  of 
fishes  and  reptiles,  but  so  closely  are  they  as- 
similated, especially  back  in  the  beginning  of 
animated  life  on  the  earth,  that  it  is  often  diffi- 
cult to  tell  which  is  strictly  a  fish  and  which  a 
reptile.  Dana  says — "These  early  fishes  have 
strong  reptilian  characteristics,  and  they  were 
thus  comprehensive  types,  foreshadowing  the 
class  of  reptiles  afterwards  created." 

Confirming  what  Moses  said,  that  the  fishes 
were — "great  sea-monsters."  Dana,  speaking  of 
the  fishes  of  the  Devonian  age,  says — "The  earli- 
est species,  therefore,  instead  of  being  the  lowest 
of  fishes,  belong  to  the  highest  of  the  three  great 
divisions;  moreover,  instead  of  being  small,  some 
of  them  were  twenty  or  thirty  feet  long;  one  class 
— the  Selachians,  is  the  highest  among  fishes, 
even  in  modern  seas."  So  that  the  record  is  correct 
in  the  order  of  the  introduction  of  these  species  of 
life,  and  it  is  also  in  describing  them  as — "great 
sea-monsters."     The  Icthyosaurs,    for  instance, 


FIFTH  CRFATIl^E  DAY  145 


"were  gigantic  animals  ten  to  forty  teet  long, 
having  paddles  somewhat  like  the  whale,  long 
head  and  jaws,  numerous  (m  some  species  200) 
stout  teeth,  and  an  eye  of  enormous  dimensions; 
more  than  thirty  species  are  known  to  have  ex- 
isted in  the  Reptilian  age."  The  Plesiosaur  had 
a  long  snake-like  neck,  a  small  head,  short  body, 
very  like  that  of  a  swan,  and  from  twenty -five  to 
thirty  feet  long.  In  the  great  central  sea  which 
then  covered  the  plains  of  Kansas,  swam  a 
species  of  great  sea-monsters  which  attained  a 
length  of  eighty  feet  and  more.  Dinosaurs 
sometimes  reached  a  length  of  fifty  to  sixty  feet. 
The  Iguanodon  was  an  herbivorous  Dinosaur, 
and  had  the  habits  of  a  Hippopotamus;  it  was 
thirty  feet  long  and  of  great  bulk.  In  this  age, 
the  reptile  approached  the  bird  form,  as  the 
Pterodactyls,  were  immense  bat-like  creatures, 
measuring  as  much  as  twenty-five  feet  from  tip 
to  tip  of  wing.  Could  Moses  have  been  more 
correct  in  his  description,  than  by  saying — "and 
God  created  great  sea-mosters  and  every  living 
creature  that  crawls,"  for  what  distinguishes  a 
reptile  from  a  fish,  is  that  the  former  crawls 
while  the  other  can  only  swim.  And  Moses  says 
that  those  which  crawl  came  after  the  great  sea- 
monsters.     And    further,    all    these    are    as    yet 


146  JS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

marine  animals,  or  as  the  record  puts  it — "with 
which  the  waters  swarm."  "Up  to  the  time  of 
the  carboniferous  formations,  nearly  all  life  was 
marine,  or  if  not  entirely  so,  required  the  ocean 
or  some  inland  sea  for  its  development  and  ex- 
istence. But  toward  the  time  when  the  Permian 
strata  were  being  deposited,  a  marvelous  change 
took  place;  the  earth  and  rivers  and  seas 
swarmed  with  reptiles,  and  the  air  was  darkened 
by  huge  flying  monsters,  half  reptile,  half  bird. 
It  was  as  if  the  sea  had  poured  out  upon  the 
shores  its  store  of  life.  So  prolific  was  this 
period  with  saurians,  lizards  and  reptiles,  as 
evidenced  by  the  fossil  remains,  that  geologists 
have  called  it  "the  great  Reptilian  era." 

After  this  comes  again,  according  to  the 
record,  the  "winged  flier."  The  nomenclature  is 
not  scientific,  nor  does  Moses  enter  into  the  de- 
tails, or  give  subdivisions;  he  is  only  tracing 
general  outlines  and  leaves  it  to  science  to  fill 
them  out  in  the  future  ages.  Science  is  a  true 
interpreter,  and  so  she  explains  that,  while  the 
expression — "the  flier  that  flies"  in  the  former 
verse,  meant  insects,  it  now  means  birds  and 
pterodactyls. 

A  most  remarkable  confirmation  of  the  scien- 
tific accuracy  of  Moses  is  given  by  so  competent 


148  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIO' 


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CD   ^-  fc  >-< 

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I  W    S"      :  3    fO      s  :  *  -^i  U 


FIFTH  CREATINE  Dy4Y  14!) 

an  authority  as  Prof,  Huxley,  which  is  all  the 
stronger  because  it  is  undesigned. 

Mr.  Huxley  is  conducting  a  controversy  with 
Mr.  Gladstone  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  "Nine- 
teenth Century,"  in  which  his  purpose  is  to  show 
that  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  in  conflict 
with  science.  Instead,  however  of  asking  what 
Moses  really  did  say,  he  accepts  the  inaccurate 
translation,  and  the  false  conclusions  which 
unscientific  centuries  have  read  into  the  record, 
and  for  these  he  holds  Moses  responsible;  then 
easily  showing  that  these  are  untrue,  he  claims 
that  Genesis  is  untrue.  Afterward  he  proceeds  to 
show  what  is  the  correct  order  of  life,  as  learned 
from  the  earth's  strata,  and  puts  it  in  the  form 
of  a  table  as  given  on  opposite  page. 

Mr.  Huxley  explains — "The  series  of  the 
fossiliferous  deposits,  which  contain  the  re- 
mains of  the  animals  which  have  lived  on 
the  earth  in  past  ages  of  its  history,  and 
which  can  alone  afford  the  evidence,  required 
by  natural  science,  of  the  order  of  appearance 
of  their  different  species,  may  be  grouped  in  the 
manner  shown  in  the  left-hand  column  of  the  ac- 
companying table,  the  oldest  being  at  the  bottom. 
In  the  right-hand  column,  I  have  noted  the 
group   of    strata,    in    which,    according    to    our 


150  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


present  information,  the  land,  air  and  water 
populations  appear  for  the  first  time." 

Now  if  we  take  this  table,  whose  design  is  inim- 
ical, and  compare  it  carefully  with  what  Moses 
did  really  say,  as  shown  in  the  third  column, 
we  shall  see,  that  so  far  from  being  in  conflict, 
Huxley  and  Moses  are  in  complete  concord.  So  far 
from  accomplishing  what  was  intended,  the  table 
most  wonderfully  confirms  Genesis,  and  as  this 
is  the  testimony  of  an  unwilling  and  even  hostile 
witness,  its  weight  is  all  the  greater.  It  will  be 
seen  however  that  Mr.  Huxley  does  not  give  a 
complete  table  of  animal  life,  but  only  as  far  as 
the  purpose  of  his  argument  requires;  all  the 
herbivora  and  carnivora,  as  well  as  man,  are  not 
included. 

"These  empires,  named  for  the  species  that 
were  then  monarchs,  rose  upon  the  earth  and 
crumbled  in  succession  to  decay,  a  thousand 
ages  before  the  foot  of  man  had  yet  pressed  the 
soil  of  the  garden  of  Eden.  A  series  of  dynasties 
flitted  like  shadows  over  the  face  of  our  planet, 
and  disappeared  beneath  the  dim  horizon  of  the 
past,  while  the  empire  of  man,  was  yet  but  an 
idea  in  the  mind  of  the  Creator.  Here  were 
morning  and  evening,  invigorating  sunlight, 
cooling   dew,  softly    wooing    breeze    and  fierce- 


FIFTH  CREATIVE  D/tY  151 

ly  maddened  tempest,  springtime  and  au- 
tumn, weeping  clouds  and  placid  evening  sky, 
ocean  sui^ges  waging  everlasting  battle  with 
the  rocky  shore — and  God  alone  the  spec- 
tator of  the  progress  of  the  mighty  work 
which  was  then  being  accomplished.  How  the 
imagination  halts  and  faints  and  falters  in  the 
effort  to  traverse  those  dim  and  distant  ages! 
The  ignoble  mollusk  held  dominion  in  the  sea, 
through  all  the  morning  twilight  of  animated  ex- 
istence; the  mute  fish  reared  his  empire  on  the 
ruins  of  that  of  the  mollusk,  in  turn  the  dynasty 
of  the  fishes  was  superseded  by  that  of  the 
reptiles."  But  all  these  changes  went  on  in 
exactly  the  order  portrayed  by  Moses;  the  chart 
of  science  has  followed  precisely  the  chart  of 
revelation,  for  the  record  on  the  rocks  must  agree 
in  all  things  with  the  record  made  in  the  Book, 
for  both  are  true. 

Again  is  added  the  expression  of  the  divine 
approval — "and  God  saw  that  it  was  good." 
This  does  not  mean  that  these  grades  were  the 
highest  and  best,  or  were  to  remain,  for  at  the 
close  of  the  Carboniferous  age,  there  was  a 
complete  extermination  of  all  the  then  living 
species,  which  made  way  for  higher  forms.  The 
divine  commendation  signifies  that  the  new  work 


152  /5  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

which  had  just  been  completed,  was  good  in 
view  of  the  function  it  had  to  perform.  As  crea- 
tion proceeded,  everything  looked  forward  to- 
ward a  great  end;  all  these  forms  of  life,  pointed 
as  with  index  finger — saying  something  better  is 
to  come,  something  better  is  yet  to  come;  we 
are  but  the  advance  guard  in  ascending  grades, 
to  announce  the  coming  of  our  king.  Not  only 
in  the  preparation  of  his  kingdom,  but  in  bony 
structure  and  in  advancing  grade  of  life,  each 
one  rising  higher  than  the  last,  there  was  an 
anticipation  of  man.  As  all  the  converging  lines 
of  a  rising  pyramid  plainly  prophesy  of  the  time 
when  the  top-stone  shall  be  reached,  so  all  the 
stages  of  creation  clearly  prophesied  of  the  time 
when  the  top-stone  of  this  pyramid  too  should 
be  brought  forth,  amid  the  acclaim  of  the  morn- 
ing stars  and  the  congratulatory  song  of  all  the 
sons  of  God. 

For  the  first  time  God  blesses  this  new 
work  of  his  hand,  because  only  life  that  has 
sensation  can  appreciate  a  blessing.  The 
blessing  contained  not  only  the  power  of  fruit- 
fulness  and  multiplication,  but  there  was  in  it 
the  capacity  and  the  permission  of  enjoyment. 
The  Creator,  did  not  intend  that  life  should 
mean  simple  existence,  but  He  endowed  anima- 


h^lFTH  CREATt^E  DAY  153 

ted  life  with  sensation,  and  this  was  to  be 
gratified.  That  his  blessing  has  been  fulfilled  is 
clearly  seen,  not  only  in  the  fact  that  the  sea 
has  been  filled  with  life,  and  the  air  with  flying 
things,  but  also  in  the  very  manifest  enjoyment 
which  all  these  creatures  seem  to  have  in  life. 
The  fish  are  as  sportive  as  the  lambs;  the  in- 
sects respond  to  the  enticing  warmth  and  sun- 
shine and  give  themselves  up  to  delightful  grat- 
ification and  enjoyment. 

All  through  the  record,  there  have  been 
glimpses  of  something  which  seems  to  be  strug- 
gling to  come  to  the  surface,  or  perhaps  we 
should  rather  say — we  have  almost  caught  sight 
of  a  something,  which  the  inadequacy  of  our  light 
or  imperfection  of  our  vision  has  prevented  us 
from  clearly  distinguishing.  From  the  very 
first,  the  record  has  said  what  it  had  to  say,  but 
men  could  not  understand  it  until  astronomy, 
and  especially  the  telescope  and  spectroscope, 
until  geology  and  biology  gave  us  the  eyes  to 
see,  and  the  ears  to  hear  what  had  been  there  all 
along.  This  principle,  which  now  almost  sug- 
gests itself  plainly,  and  now  eludes  us,  is  the 
method  of  creation;  was  it  all  by  direct  and 
special  act  of  God,  or  was  it  by  evolution?  At 
each  step  in  the  record  is   the   suggestive   state- 


154  IS  MOSES  scientific:' 


ment — "and  God  said  let  there  be,  and  it  was 
so,"  Does  this  mean,  not  what  it  appears  to 
say,  not  that  God  used  co-operating  causes;  but 
when  God  said — "let  there  be  light;"  "let  the 
earth  bring  forth;"  "let  the  waters  bring  forth 
abundantly,"  does  it  mean  that  God  did  it  Him- 
self directly;  that  God  created  vegetation  Him- 
self, without  the  earth  as  a  co-operating  cause; 
that  God  created  the  animal  Himself,  without 
the  co-operating  cause  of  the  waters?  Does  it 
mean  that  the  command  was  really,  not  to  the 
earth  to  bring  forth  the  first  plants,  not  to  the 
waters  to  bring  forth  the  first  animals,  but  the 
command  was  only  to  Himself?  Reproduction 
was  to  be  "after  his  kind;"  but  when  the  addi- 
tional blessing  is  added  to  "multiply  and  fill" 
does  this  mean  multiplication  only  in  numbers, 
but  not  in  species?  Does  this  mean  nothing 
more  than  reproduction  "after  his  kind",  over 
again?  The  method  of  creation — just  how  God 
did  it,  seems  to  be  struggling  to  reveal  itself; 
have  we  as  yet  reached  the  point  where  we  can 
read  clearly  and  understand  its  meaning?  This 
suggestion  is  more  clearly  made  in  the  fifth 
creative  day  than  elsewhere,  and  especially  in 
the  different  expression  used  with  regard  to  man 
in  the  sixth  day,  so   that   it    can   no   longer    be 


FIFTH  CREATIVE  DAY  155 

avoided,  but  its  fuller  discussion  will  be  reserved 
for  a  special  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


SIXTH  CREATIVE  DAY. 


And  God  said  lei  tJie  eartJi  bring  forth  animals 
after  their  kind,  the  herbivora,  the  reptiles,  the  car- 
nivora  after  their  kind;  and  it  was  so.  And  God 
made  the  carnivora  after  their  kind,  and  the  her- 
bivora after  their  kind,  and  every  land-reptile  after 
its  kind;  and  God  saw  that  it  ivas  good.  And  God 
said  let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness, 
and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
and  over  the  birds  of  the  air,  and  over  the  herbivora, 
and  over  all  the  land,  and  over  every  land-reptile.  So 
God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of 
God  created  He  him,  male  and  female  created 
He  them.  And  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said — be 
fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth,  and 
subdue  it,  and  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea 
and  over  the  birds  of  the  air,  and  over  every  animal 
that  creepeth  tipon  the  earth.  And  God  said  behold 
J  have  given  you  every  herb  bearing  seed  which  is 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  aud  every  tree  in  which  is 
the  fruit  of  a  tree  yielding  seed,  to  you  it  shall  be  food. 
And  to  every  animal  of  the  earth,  and  to  every  bird 
of  the  air,  and  to  every  living  thing  that  creep- 
eth upon  the  earth,  I  have  given  every  green  herb  for 
156 


SIXTH  CREATINE  DAY  157 

food:  and  it  was  so.  And  God  saw  everything  that 
He  had  made:  and  behold  it  was  very  good;  and 
evening  ivas,  morning  was  sixth  day. 

The  fifth  creative  day  describes  to  us  the 
creation  of  marine  animals,  in  exactly  the  order 
which  Mr.  Huxley  says  science  knows  to  be 
correct;  the  sixth  day  gives  the  description  and 
order  of  land-animals  and  man,  and  here  too  the 
record  is  in  perfect  agreement  with  science. 
But  the  marine  animals  preceded  land  animals 
by  a  whole  creative  day,  says  Moses;  is  that 
correct?  It  is  correct,  says  geology,  for  the 
lower  animals  appeared  in  the  Secondary  period, 
but  the  mammals  did  not  appear  until  the  Ter- 
tiary. Speaking  of  this  sixth  day,  Dawson  says 
— "It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say  that  this 
period  corresponds  with  the  Tertiary  or  Caino- 
zoic  era  of  geologists.  The  coincidences  are 
very  marked  and  striking,  for  though  in  the 
Secondary  period  of  geology,  when  these  lower 
orders  prevailed,  there  were  great  facilities  in  the 
strata  then  forming,  for  the  preservation  of 
mammals,  yet  only  a  few  small  species  of  the 
humblest  orders  have  been  found.  But  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  Tertiary  period,  all  this 
was  changed;  most  of  the  gigantic  reptiles  had 
disappeared  and  land  mammals  of  large  size  and 


158  75  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

high  organization  had  taken  their  place.  Per- 
haps no  geological  change  is  more  striking  or 
more  remarkable,  than  the  sudden  disappearance 
of  numerous  species  of  large  mammals,  and  this, 
not  in  one  region  only  but  over  both  continents." 
We  set  out  with  the  determination  to  study, 
not  traditions,  nor  even  translations,  but  the 
record  in  its  own  original  language,  so  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  rendering  of  what  took  place  during 
the  sixth  day,  at  the  head  of  this  chapter,  differs 
somewhat  from  the  authorized  translation.  Moses 
says  there  were  two  kinds  of  land  animals  which 
now  appeared,  and  the  distinction  between  them 
must  be  learned  from  their  use  elsewhere. 
Bhema,  translated — cattle,  in  our  English  ver- 
sion, is  used  in  a  few  instances  as  a  general 
term  for  animals,  but  in  distinction  from  chaytho- 
eretz,  as  here,  it  means  domestic  animals  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  wild  beasts.  In  Lev.  1:2, 
Bhema  refers  only  to  the  herds  and  flocks — 
"Ye  shall  bring  your  offering  of  the  cattle,  even 
of  the  herd  and  of  the  flock."  In  Lev.  11:22-27, 
the  bhema  are  mentioned  which  could  and  could 
not  be  used  for  food,  and  these  are  strictly  her- 
bivora,  while  the  carnivora  which  were  also  un- 
clean, are  described  by  chaytho-eretz,  and  this 
distinction  is  observed  wherever  these  two  words 


SIXTH  CREATINE  DAY  159 


occur  together.  Principal  Dawson  also  translates 
the  two  words  as  above — viz,  herbivora  and 
carnivora. 

Now  if  we  will  turn  back  to  page  139  and  look 
once  more  to  Dana's  chart,  we  shall  find  that 
the  order  of  life  as  given  by  Moses  is  precisely 
that  given  by  Dana,  for  herbivora  and  carnivora 
are  both  mammals.  Dana  speaks  of  the  two  in 
the  general  class  of  mammals,  while  Moses  gives 
the  two  separately,  and  says  that  the  herbivora 
precede  the  carnivora;  is  this  correct.-'  Dana 
says — "The  quadrupeds  did  not  all  come  forth 
together.  Large  and  powerful  herbivorous 
species  ^rj-/  take  possession  of  the  earth,  with 
only  a  few  small  carnivora.  These  pass  away, 
and  other  herbivora  with  a  larger  proportion  of 
carnivora  next  appear;  these  also  are  extermi- 
nated and  so  with  others.  Then  the  carnivora 
appear  in  vast  numbers  and  power,  and  the  her- 
bivora also  abound.  Moreover  these  races  attain 
a  magnitude  and  number  far  surpassing  all  that 
now  exist,  as  much  so  indeed  on  all  the  conti- 
nents, as  the  old  Mastodon  twenty  feet  long  and 
nine  feet  high,  exceeds  the  modern  buffalo." 
Here  is  no  reconciliation,  but  perfect  agreement. 
Moses  wrote  his  order  of  mamalian  life  centuries 
a;5o,  while  Dana  wrote  his  from  the  stand-point 


160  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

of  pure  science,  with   no  reference  to   Genesis. 

Between  the  herbivora  and  carnivora  Moses 
speaks  once  more  of  creeping  things  as  he  had 
done  on  the  fifth  day,  and  again  he  is  correct, 
for  a  new  species  of  reptiles  now  appear.  Dana 
tells  us — "the  first  snakes  have  been  found  in 
the  Eocene;  a  species  twenty  feet  long  was 
discovered  in  the  Brackelsham  beds;  half  a 
dozen  species,  related  to  the  common  black 
snake  occur  in  the  Miocene."  The  Eocene — 
literally,  "the  dawn  of  the  new"  is  the  first,  and 
the  Miocene  is  the  middle  division  of  the  Tertiary 
period,  which  corresponds  to  the  sixth  day  of 
Genesis.  The  order  is  again  perfectly  scientific 
herbivora,  reptiles,  carnivora. 

A  difficulty  however  occurs  here  which  must 
be  honestly  acknowledged,  for  views  which  de- 
pend upon  ignoring  uncomfortable  facts  can- 
not be  reliable.  In  the  24th  verse  the  order  is  that 
of  science — herbivora,  reptiles,  carnivora,  but  in 
the  next  verse,  this  order  is  changed  to  carnivora, 
herbivora,  reptiles.  An  explanation  may  be  that 
the  first  gives  the  true  order  of  creation,  while  the 
second  gives  the  order  of  rank,  the  carnivora 
being  larger  and  stronger  than  the  herbivora, 
while  the  herbivora  rank  above  the  reptiles. 
But  if  this  be  not  the   explanation,    we  may   be 


SIXTH  CRE^TI^E  D/IY  \(\\ 

sure  that  some  one  will  come  along  to  give  us 
tlie  explanation,  and  we  shall  tind,  as  usual 
that  the  record  is  right. 

And  now  the  top-stone  of  the  pyramid  is 
"brought  forth  with  cryings — grace,  grace  unto 
it."  Man  appears  next,  on  the  same  day  with 
the  higher  orders,  but  raised  far  above  them  by 
the  endowment  of  a  moral  nature.  These  three 
facts  are  very  suggestive,  and  the  first  two  are 
fully  corroborated  by  geology,  \'\z,  that  man 
appeared  last,  and  on  the  same  day  with  the 
higher  animals,  but  on  the  third  point — that  he 
has  the  endowment  of  a-  new  nature,  geology  is 
not  competent  to  speak.  Says  Dana — "As  the 
mammalian  age  draws  to  a  close,  the  herbivora 
and  carnivora  of  that  age  all  pass  away,  except- 
ing, it  is  believed,  a  few  that  are  useful  to 
man.  New  creations  of  smaller  size  peopled  the 
groves;  the  vegetation  received  accessions  to  its 
foliage,  fruits  trees  and  flowers,  and  the  seas 
brighter  forms  of  life.  This  we  know  from  com- 
parisons with  the  fossils  of  the  preceding  mam- 
malian age.  There  was  at  that  time  no  chaotic 
UPTURNING,  but  only  the  opening  out  of  creation 
to  its  fullest  extent;  and  so  in  Genesis,  ;/<?  new 
da_y  IS  begun,  it  is  still  the  sixth  day."  Exactly 
so;   animals  of  the  higher  order  and    man    come 


162  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


forth  on  the  same  day,  so  says  geology  and  so 
says  the  Bible,  but  how  could  the  writer  of  this 
record  have  trodden  amid  the  elaborate  difficul- 
ties of  that  distant  past,  and  not  have  made  a 
misstep,  when  only  the  most  diligent  study  of 
the  rocks  in  this  late  year  of  Grace,  has  been 
able  to  clear  away  those  difficulties,  so  as  to 
read  aright  that  testimony  of  the  rocks? 

As  we  look  back  from  man's  place,  upon  the 
past  long  history,  wc  can  see  now  how  all  was 
in  preparation  for  his  coming.  The  waters 
ground  up  the  rocks  to  make  for  him  a  soil; 
vegetation  removed  the  poison  from  the  atmos- 
phere and  stored  it  away  as  fuel  for  his  future 
use.  Even  geological  upheavals,  the  rising  and 
submergence  of  continents;  vast  wrinkles  thrown 
up  to  form  mountains  which  were  burst  through 
with  irrepressible  volcanic  force;  the  crust 
twisted,  broken,  thrown  into  great  confusion — 
all  this  can  now  be  clearly  seen  to  have  been  for 
the  benefit  of  man,  and  a  preparation  for  his 
coming.  Had  it  not  been  for  these  upheavals, 
the  coal  would  have  been  buried  under  ten 
thousand  feet  of  level  strata,  so  far  away  from 
man's  sight  that  he  would  never  have  found  it, 
nor  dreamed  that  this  great  provision  was  wait- 
ing his  search  beneath   his   feet.      But   tlie    coal 


SIXTH  CREATURE  DAY  1G3 

was  tilted  up  on  end;  again  and  again  it  crops 
out  upon  the  surface,  as  much  as  to  say — see 
here,  search  not  in  vain;  dig  and  be  warm;  use 
freely  the  fuel  which  your  beneficent  Creator 
stored  away  for  you  thousands  of  ages  ago,  and 
let  the  wheels  of  your  industry  revolve,  let  your 
literature  be  printed,  and  let  it  be  disseminated 
on  the  wings  of  the  wind.  The  metals  too  were 
buried  beneath  a  vast  amount  of  sediments,  but 
by  the  rupture  of  the  earth's  crust,  they  have 
been  thrown  up  to  the  surface  and  a  clew  is  given, 
which  man  can  follow  to  discover  the  vast  treas- 
ures which  would  not  otherwise  have  been  found. 
On  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Superior  are  the 
famous  picture  rocks,  strange  formations  cut 
out  in  all  manner  of  fanciful  forms.  A  mile  be- 
neath these  rocks,  lie  the  rich  copper  ores.  A 
fiery  outburst  threw  this  valuable  metal  to  the 
surface;  it  did  more,  it  reduced  those  refractory 
ores  for  the  service  of  man.  It  did  still  more,  it 
bent  the  flinty  rocks  into  the  form  of  an  im- 
mense trough,  heaven  poured  out  its  waters  to 
fill  it,  and  to-day.  Lake  Superior,  connected  with 
the  other  great  lakes,  floats  an  immense  tonnage 
to  bring  us  the  valuable  ores  of  upper  Michigan. 
This  same  preparation  is  noticeable  in  the  case 
of  gold,  iron  and  all  the  other  valuable  metals. 


164  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

But  what  is  more  remarkable  still,  note  the 
time  when  this  upheaval  took  place;  mark 
it  well  and  then  "be  still  and  know  that 
He  is  God."  Had  all  this  valuable  store  of 
gold,  iron,  copper,  coal  been  thrown  up  to  the 
surface  in  the  Mesozoic  period,  all  would  have 
been  deeply  buried  again,  or  have  been  washed 
over  all  the  breadth  of  the  land.  Instead  of 
that,  God  saw  to  it  that  this  breaking  of  the 
earth's  strata,  and  turning  of  them  up  on  end 
should  take  place  after  all  the  Tertiary  beds  had 
been  laid  and  man  is  just  about  to  appear.  And 
not  only  so,  but  nature,  contained  a  prophecy 
that  man  should  be  an  intelligent,  reasoning, 
worshiping  creature,  for  recall  how  few  of 
nature's  resources  have  been  discovered  without 
study  and  effort.  When  the  Creator  adopted  an 
intelligent  method  and  a  beautiful  symmetry  of 
plan,  it  was  a  sure  hint  that  He  meant  to  intro- 
duce an  intelligent  being,  who  should  be  able  to 
respond  and  follow  Him.  And  now,  at  last  he 
appears;  the  king  has  come,  and  dominion  is 
formally  turned  over  to  him. 

By  referring  once  more  to  the  chart  of  the  in- 
troduction of  life,  on  page  1 39,  it  will  be  seen  that 
all  previous  species  had  been  introduced  gradu- 
ally, beginning  in  the  age,  previous  to   that   to 


SIXTH  CREATIVE  DAY  165 

which  it  gave  its  name;  the  fishes  reigned  in  one 
age,  but  began  in  the  previous  age,  so  did  the 
reptiles,  and  mammals,  but  not  man;  the  age  of 
man  began  abruptly,  for  he  is  an  exception. 
Winchell  says — "The  moment  that  the  last  rev- 
olutionary visitation  had  come  to  an  end,  while 
yet  the  lands  had  become  scarcely  stable  in  their 
places,  man  seems  to  have  suddenly  made  his 
appearance  among  the  beasts  of  the  earth,  and 
to  have  moved  among  them  with  a  conscious 
and  uncontested  superiority."  That  is  the  testi- 
mony of  the  rocks,  but  it  simply  corroborates 
what  Moses  said  long  ago.  Man  does  step  out 
at  once,  and  takes  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the 
sea,  over  the  birds  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living 
thing  that  creepeth  on  the  earth.  By  his  intelli- 
gence, he  is  master  over  those  which  have  much 
greater  strength  and  speed  and  even  cunning. 

Creation  has  reached  its  finality  in  man;  his 
very  physical  structure  indicates  that  man  is  at 
the  top.  He  is  a  vertebrate,  the  highest  order 
of  mammals.  The  lowest  of  this  class  carry  the 
brain  on  a  horizontal  spine;  as  they  ascend  in 
grade  the  brain  is  held  higher  and  the  spine 
more  elevated ;  the  class  next  below  man  carries 
its  brain  now  on  erect  spine  and  now  prone,  but 
man  alone  stands  erect,  with  the   brain   on    the 


IGG  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

top,  and  physical  structure   can   rise   no   higher 
than  this. 

"But  beyond  this,  in  Man  the  forehmbs 
are  not  organs  of  locomotion,  as  they  are  in 
all  other  mammals;  they  have  passed  from 
the  locomotive  to  the  cephalic  series,  that  is, 
have  been  made  to  subserve  the  purposes  of  the 
head.  This  transfer  is  in  accordance  with  a 
grand  law  in  nature,  which  is  at  the  basis  of 
grade  and  development.  The  intellectual  char- 
acter of  man,  is  thus  expressed  in  his  material 
structure.  Man  is  therefore  not  one  of  the 
Primates  alongside  of  the  Monkeys;  he  stands 
alone — the  Archon  of  Mammals."     (Dana.) 

But  now  man  takes  a  sudden  leap  above  all 
the  other  animals,  so  that  an  impassable  gulf 
becomes  fixed  between  him  and  them,  in  the 
endowment  of  a  moral  nature.  He  has  an  intel- 
ligence, whose  capacity  for  development  knows 
no  limits.  The  animal  has  instincts,  which  can 
be  educated  to  a  certain  extent,  but  never  to 
the  point  where  these  instincts  become  human 
reason.  A  dog  can  be  trained,  so  can  a  horse; 
but  no  amount  of  training  would  make  the  dog 
or  horse  capable  of  learning  mathematics  or 
comprehending  philosophy,  while  there  is  not  a 
child  of  the  lowest  savage,  which  cannot   be    in- 


SIXTH  CREATIVE  D/IY  107 

structed  so  as  to  comprehend  the  highest 
learning.  The  human  reason,  on  the  contrary 
is  unHmited;  man  can  go  on  developing  forever 
and  never  reach  the  line  beyond  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  go. 

Man  is  a  moral  creature;  he  knows  right 
from  wrong,  and  can  feel  the  weight  of 
that  word — ought.  This  moral  sense  is  in- 
tuitive, while  a  lower  animal  recognizes  a  right 
or  wrong  because  he  has  been  rewarded  for 
doing  right  and  punished  for  doing  wrong.  Mati, 
like  his  Creator,  can  enjoy  right  for  right's  sake; 
can  enter  into  the  sweet  bliss  which  wells  up 
within  him  from  the  fountains  of  an  innate  sense 
of  right,  without  any  external  rewards.  Man 
can  worship  and  love  his  Creator;  he  can  com- 
mune with  Him,  not  only  by  the  aid  of  articulate 
language,  but  by  the  unspoken  language  of  the 
heart.  He  can  receive  the  inspiration  and  gift 
of  the  divine  Spirit;  he  possesses  the  highest 
and  heavenliest  prerogative,  a  capacity  for  God; 
can  receive  the  germ  of  God-life,  just  as  the 
tree  can  receive  a  graft  of  a  new  species  and  in- 
corporate it  into  itself. 

This  spiritual  life  is  altogether  different  from 
the  human,  as  natural  life  is  altogether  different 
from  crystalization,  the  quality  possessed  by  the 


IGS  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC!' 

inorganic.  As  chemical  atoms  can  be  so  organ- 
ized as  to  receive  life,  so  that  a  material  body 
can  somehow  contain  a  human  soul,  exactly  so 
the  human  soul  has  been  so  organized  as  to  have 
the  capacity  of  receiving  and  containing  a  life  as 
much  above  itself,  as  human  life  is  above  the 
chemical  constituents  which  hold  it.  This  is  the 
new  birth.  Then  the  soul  itself  receives  another 
something,  we  call  divine  life,  just  as  the  body 
by  birth  receives  a  something  which  we  call 
hsman  life.  Christ  said,  unless  a  soul  did  thus 
exercise  its  highest  faculty  and  receive  this  new 
and  divine  life,  it  would  be  utterly  impossible  for 
it  to  enter  that  new  and  divine  kingdom.  Nico- 
demus  marveled  at  this,  but  as  a  master  of  Israel 
he  should  not  have  marveled  at  this  capacity 
of  the  human  soul,  for  he  should  have  known 
that  nothing  can  enter  a  higher  kingdom  unless 
it  first  be  endowed  with  the  life  of  that  kingdom; 
nothing  can  enter  the  plant  kingdom  unless  it 
has  the  plant  life;  nothing  can  enter  the  animal 
kingdom  unless  it  have  the  animal  life,  and  like- 
wise, no  one  can  enter  the  kingdom  of  God, 
except  it  have  the  life  of  God.  This  is  a  simple, 
rational  necessity,  which  Nicodemus  should  have 
recognized.  And  this  capacity  of  the  new  birth, 
this  ability  to  receive  and  incorporate  the  divine 


SIXTH  CREATURE  DAY  ]l)9 

germ,  this  is  the   highest    faculty    of   man,    and 
Hfts  him  infinitely  above  the  animal. 

Now  it  may  seem  a  strange  omission,  but 
upon  man  the  divine  commendation  is  not  pro- 
nounced, as  it  was  upon  the  animal.  After  his 
appearance,  it  is  not  said — "and  God  saw  that  it 
was  good."  Is  not  this  a  reflection  upon  him? 
does  not  the  record  make  a  discrimination  in 
favor  of  the  animal?  On  the  contrary,  this 
omission  is  the  highest  compliment  to  man;  it 
is  a  tribute  to  his  greatness.  Animals  were 
created  at  their  best;  all  that  they  could  ever 
do,  they  could  do  at  the  beginning.  The  ant  is 
not  any  wiser  than  it  was  in  the  time  of  Solomon  ; 
the  dog  was  just  as  sagacious  at  the  beginning 
as  now,  the  fox  as  cunning.  There  has  been 
no  improvement  among  the  animals,  but  there 
has  been  vast  improvement  among  men,  even 
in  their  fallen  estate.  With  man  there  is  end- 
less power  of  improvement,  unlimited  progress; 
ever  and  forever  he  shall  become  better  and  still 
better  able  to  serve  the  ends,  his  Creator  had  in 
view  when  He  created  man.  Man  was  not 
"good,"  when  he  was  created,  in  the  sense  in 
which  this  term  is  used  in  this  first  chapter  of 
Genesis;  he  is  not  now,  and  perhaps  he  never 
shall   be.     That   commendation    expressed   the 


170  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC^ 

final  height  of  attainment.  Its  omission  was  not 
a  suggestion  of  imperfection,  but  of  incomplete- 
ness; it  was  a  suggestion  that  man  was  to  "work 
out  his  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling, 
for  it  was  God  that  worketh  in  him  both  to  will 
and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure."  Some  one  has 
said — "man  is  an  animal  with  tools;"  those  tools 
are  the  divine  endowments,  and  no  matter  how 
well  he  has  used  them,  there  is  always  a  possi- 
bility of  using  them  better;  however  great  may 
have  been  his  accomplishment  with  them,  there 
is  always  a  still  higher  power  of  accomplishment. 
Man  was  not  created  at  his  best  even  though 
pure  and  holy;  he  was  not  placed  at  his  final 
state,  and  indeed  such  is  his  capacity,  he  shall 
never  reach  his  final  state,  beyond  which  he 
cannot  attain  to  something  better.  All  this  is 
impossible  to  the  animal,  and  therefore  at  the 
first,  God  could  say  of  it  "and  God  saw  that  it 
was  good,"  but  this  could  not  be  said  of  man, 
because  he  is  ever  capable  of  something  better. 
Dana  thus  admirably  sums  up  the  attributes  of 
man — "Man  was  the  first  being  that  was  not 
finished  on  reaching  adult  growth,  but  was  pro- 
vided with  powers  for  indefinite  expansion,  a  will 
for  a  life  work,  and  boundless  aspirations  to  lead 
to  endless  improvement.      He  was  the  first  being 


SIXTH  CREATURE  DAY  171 


capable  of  an  intelligent  survey  of  nature  and 
comprehension  of  her  laws;  the  first  capable  of 
augmenting  his  strength  by  bending  nature  to 
his  service,  rendering  thereby  a  weak  body 
stronger  than  all  possible  animal  force;  the 
first  capable  of  deriving  happiness  from  truth 
and  goodness;  of  apprehending  eternal  right; 
of  reaching  towards  a  knowledge  of  self  and  of 
God;  the  first  therefore  capable  of  conscious 
obedience  or  disobedience  of  any  moral  law, 
and  the  first  subject  to  debasement  through  his 
appetites  and  a  moral  nature.  There  is  in  man 
a  spiritual  element  in  which  the  brutes  have  no 
share.  His  power  of  indefinite  progress,  his 
thoughts  and  desires  that  look  onward  even  be- 
yond time,  his  recognition  of  spiritual  existence 
and  of  a  Divinity  above,  all  evince  a  nature  that 
partakes  of  the  infinite  and  divine.  Man  is  linked 
to  the  past  through  the  system  of  life,  of  which 
he  is  the  last,  the  completing  creation.  But, 
unlike  other  species  of  that  closing  system  of  the 
past,  he,  through  his  spiritual  nature,  is  far 
more  intimately  connected  with  the  opening 
future.'' 

While  man  was  created  pure  and  holy,  he  was 
probably  as  undeveloped  as  a  child.  We  must 
not   think    of    him    however    as    an    uncivilized 


172  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC P 


creature  gathering  acorns.  Though  he  had  none 
of  the  arts  and  sciences  of  our  civiHzation,  he 
was  very  far  from  being  a  savage.  He  had  fresh 
and  uncorrupted  powers,  which  as  in  the  case 
of  a  child,  must  have  been  capable  of  prodigious 
growth;  he  had  nature,  the  great  original  of 
which  all  art  is  but  the  copy;  he  had  God  for 
his  teacher,  with  whom  he  communed  without 
restraint,  and  the  effect  of  such  a  stimulus  and 
inspiration  must  have  been  immense.  We  can 
no  more  judge  of  his  progress  and  rapid  develop- 
ment from  our  own  experience  under  circum- 
stances so  different,  than  we  could  judge  of  the 
growth  of  a  tropical  tree,  from  its  stunted  size  in 
the  cold  climate  to  which  it  has  been  trans- 
planted. 

The  dominion  which  was  given  at  once 
into  his  hands,  was  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
and  over  the  birds  of  the  air,  and  over  the 
bhema  or  herbivora,  and  over  all  the  land,  and 
over  every  reptile  that  crawls  upon  the  earth. 
It  is  noticeable  that  the  carnivora  are  not  in- 
cluded, and  when  the  description  of  the  garden 
of  Eden  is  given  in  the  second  chapter,  the  carni- 
vora again  are  not  mentioned.  We  shall  never 
appreciate  the  wonders  of  Scripture  unless  we  pay 
strictest  aUention  to  what  it  does  not  say,  as  well 


SIXTH  CREATINE  DAY  173 

as  to  what  it  does  say.  Its  omissions  are  as  sugges- 
tive as  its  positive  statements.  If  the  carnivora 
had  been  included  among  the  animals  over  which 
man  should  have  dominion,  again  the  accuracy 
of  Moses  would  be  questioned. 

The  question  cannot  but  be  asked — how  could 
man  be  safe  and  happy,  when  carnivorous  and 
predacious  creatures  were  created  in  great 
abundance  on  the  same  day  with  himself,  accord- 
ing to  both  geology  and  Scripture?  This  question 
can  be  easily  solved  when  brought  into  the  light 
of  modern  knowledge  of  nature.  Every  large 
region  of  the  earth  differs  from  all  other  such 
regions,  in  the  groups  of  animals  which  inhabit 
it;  there  is  also  sufficient  reason  to  believe  that 
all  animals  and  plants  have  spread  from  certain 
local  centers  of  creation.  Scripture  and  ethnology 
agree,  in  assigning  the  origin  of  the  human  race 
to  the  vicinity  of  the  rivers  Tigris  and  Euphrates, 
and  to  this  same  center,  we  can  also  with  the 
greatest  probability,  trace  several  species  of  the 
animals  and  plants  that  are  most  useful  to  man. 
At  the  time  of  man's  appearance,  this  locality 
may  have  been  peopled  by  just  such  animals  as 
we  know  to  have  come  from  thence,  such  as 
were  specially  suited  to  association  with  himself. 
The  passage  in   the   second   chapter,  which  de- 


174  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

scribes  the  formation  of  herbivora  and  birds  out 
of  the  ground,  and  which  were  then  brought  to 
Adam  to  see  what  he  would  name  them,  would 
be  superfluous,  unless  the  additional  facts  were 
intended,  that  these  creatures  thus  associated 
with  him,  were  only  those  which  would  con- 
tribute to  his  happiness  and  had  no  tendency  to 
injure  or  annoy.  Indeed  the  class  which  we  call 
the  domestic  animals,  seem  to  have  an  innate 
fitness  for  domestication,  and  a  fondness  for 
man's  company,  while  other  animals  cannot  be 
domesticated  even  after  long  contact.  But  the 
difficulty  arising  out  of  the  fact  that  ferocious 
and  carnivorous  animals  existed  at  the  same 
time  that  man  was  in  Eden,  is  at  once  obviated 
by  the  geological  doctrine  of  the  extinction  of 
species.  In  past  geologic  ages,  large  and  im- 
portant groups  of  species  have  become  extinct, 
and  have  been  replaced  by  new  groups;  this 
process  has  removed  many  creatures  which  would 
have  been  highly  injurious  to  the  welfare  of 
man.  We  know  that  many  injurious  animals 
have  been  replaced  by  others  that  were  helpful ; 
why  cannot  we  suppose  that  this  process  would 
have  continued  until  all  the  injurious  animals 
had  been  so  replaced,  if  man  had  not  sinned.? 
The  curse  would  thus  consist  in  the    permission 


SIXTH  CREATINE  DAY  175 


to  the  predacious  animals  and  to  the  thorns  and 
briars  of  other  regions,  to  invade  Eden,  or  in 
man's  own  expulsion  from  the  favored  spot,  to 
contend  with  the  animals  and  plants  which  were 
intended  to  have  given  way  and  become  extinct 
before  him?  Thus  while  the  other  regions  were 
as  before  the  appearance  of  man,  the  center 
whence  the  human  race  sprang,  was  also  the 
center  of  only  helpful  animals  and  plants,  which 
would  have  spread  with  him  until  the  whole 
earth  had  been  subdued,  as  we  have  found  to  be 
the  case  with  many  other  species  of  fauna  and 
flora, 

A  conflict  has  been  supposed  to  exist  between 
St.  Paul  and  geology,  in  that  it  is  said  the  former 
declares  that  there  was  no  death  in  the  world 
until  Adam  sinned,  while  geology  finds  the  rocks 
filled  with  the  skeletons  of  animals  which  per- 
ished, ages  before  man  appeared  at  all.  But 
this  inference,  like  all  others  which  would  involve 
Scripture  into  a  conflict  with  Science,  arises  from 
careless  reading.  Paul  does  not  say  that  death 
passed  upon  all  the  world  because  of  man's  sin, 
but  upon  his  OA'n  descendents;  "wherefore  as 
by  one  man,  sin  entered  into  the  world  and  death 
by  sin,  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for 
that  all  have  sinned."     Death  that    was    penal. 


176  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

extends  only  as  far  as  the  sin,  which  was  the 
cause;  the  animals  are  not  capable  of  sin  be- 
cause they  have  no  moral  nature.  This  high 
prerogative  of  a  moral  nature  is  capable  of  being 
positively  pure  and  holy,  but  it  is  also  capable 
of  sinning,  and  must  then  incur  the  consequence 
of  sin — death. 

And  now  is  presented,  v;hat  to  the^  writer, 
seems  the  richest,  the  most  blessed,  and  most 
hopeful  of  all  the  suggestions  this  wonderful 
chapter  has  yet  made.  Man  appears  on  the 
same  creative  day  on  which  the  animals  were 
created,  so  says  the  Bible,  and  so  says  Geology. 
Any  uninspired  writer  of  the  time  of  Moses  or 
before,  would  certainly  have  claimed  a  special 
day  for  man;  he  would  have  put  the  creation  of 
the  higher  animals  back  on  the  fifth  day,  with 
the  other  animals,  and  have  reserved  the  sixth 
exclusively  for  one  who  deserved  a  whole  day  to 
himself.  But  then  he  would  not  have  been  true 
to  science,  for  while  man  is  raised  far  above  the 
plane  of  the  animals  by  the  endowment  of  a 
moral  nature,  which  allies  him  to  God,  yet  he  is 
created  at  the  same  time  with  the  other  mam- 
mals, with  which,  in  his  bodily  nature,  he  is  also 
allied. 

This  makes  the  introduction    of  spiritual  life, 


SIXTH  CRE^Til^E  DAY  J 77 


exactly  parallel  to  the  introduction  of  natural 
life.  It  will  be  remembered,  that  creation  of 
natural  life  was  the  second  act  of  the  third  day, 
so  likewise  the  creation  of  spiritual  life,  is  the 
second  act  of  the  sixth  day.  To  the  ordinary 
intelligence,  this  would  seem  to  be  a  mistake; 
life  of  both  kinds  should  not  have  been  intro- 
duced until  its  own  period;  natural  life  should 
have  been  created  in  the  era  of  life,  and  spiritual 
life  in  the  era  of  divine  life.  But  no,  each  is 
brought  forth  in  one  age,  and  intended  to  meet 
the  fullest  development  in  the  succeeding  age; 
each  is  made  to  strike  its  roots  down  in  the  one, 
and  flourish  in  the  next.  Natural  life  is  planted 
in  the  era  of  matter,  but  brings  forth  its  results 
in  the  era  of  life;  so  spiritual  life  is  planted  in 
the  era  of  the  animal,  but  shall  attain  its  true 
development,  in  the  next,  in  the  era  of  the 
spiritual. 

And  here  let  us  reflect  how  rich,  how  full  of 
blessed  suggestion  this  fact  is.  Natural  life  be- 
comes thus  the  type,  or  perhaps  we  should  say. 
the  parallel  of  spiritual  life.  Could  we  have 
taken  our  place  back  in  the  third  creative  day, 
and  have  seen  life  as  it  then  was,  we  would  have 
been  just  as  little  able  to  imagine  what  the  im- 
mense and  beautiful  development  of  it  would  be 


178  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


in  the  sixth  and  seventh,  as  now  standing  at  the 
very  threshold  of  the  spiritual  life,  we  are  little 
able  to  imagine  what  its  glorious  and  endless  de- 
velopment shall  be,  when  the  new  week  shall 
have  begun  under  "the  new  heavens  and  in  the 
new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness." 
Then  the  world  was  lifeless  and  bare;  not  a 
blade  of  grass  to  deck  the  tomb  of  the  dead 
earth,  not  a  leaf  nor  flower;  not  a  bird  nor 
animal  to  waken  echoes  of  life  from  the  hollow 
caverns  where  the  cruel  waters  of  the  sea  alone 
were  devouring  the  rocks  in  their  ceaseless,  ever- 
lasting grind.  In  what  form,  life  first  appeared, 
neither  Revelation  nor  Evolution  have  told  us; 
perhaps  a  thin  sparse  growth,  like  moss  or  fungus, 
began  to  cover  the  bare  rocks.  Had  we  been 
there,  we  should  have  stooped  down  to  pluck 
the  strange  thing,  and  then  we  should  have 
tossed  it  contemptuously  into  the  sea.  Is  this 
all.^  Is  this  insignificant,  worthless  thing  that 
which  you  call  life  ?  Do  you  expect  that  from  this, 
will  develope  an  ever  increasing  series  of  new 
forms,  that  will  cover  the  dead  earth  with  verdure 
and  beauty,  that  shall  fill  the  air  with  winged 
things  of  gorgeous  hues  and  delightful  melody, 
that  shall  stock  the  world  with  moving,  sentient 
creatures,  ranging  all  tiie  way  from  the  burrowing 


SIXTH  CREATiyE  DAY  179 

mole  to  the  mighty  mastodon,  from  the  shmy 
invertebrate,  to  a  man  made  in  the  image  and 
likeness  of  God? 

Compare  that  first  germ  of  natural  life 
with  what  has  come  forth  from  it — an  earth, 
that  were  fit  for  the  sons  of  God,  were  it  not 
for  sin.  The  mountains  are  decked  with  flow- 
ers, the  vallies  are  yellow  with  harvests,  the 
air  is  full  of  song,  every  inch  of  earth's  surface  is 
busy  with  multitudinous  life;  fish  and  insect  and 
animal  and  bird  and  man  are  full  of  activity  and 
gladness.  And  when  we  rise  to  contemplate 
what  man  has  been  able  to  achieve — cities  burst 
forth  into  the  blossoms  of  civilization,  chasms  are 
bridged,  mountains  tunneled,  sea  turned  into  a 
highway,  continents  webed  with  railroads  and 
threaded  with  electric  wires,  distance  annihilated 
and  time  itself  outrun;  when  we  see  all  this,  and 
remember  the  first  beginnings  of  life  back  in 
the  third  day.  we  are  lost  in   wonder   and    awe. 

But  this  is  only  the  type  of  another,  a  higher 
life,  which  was  not  communicated  to  matter, 
but  was  breathed  into  man,  and  which  was  in- 
troduced as  the  second  act  on  the  sixth  creative 
day.  As  we  stand  here,  and  look  at  this  small 
beginning  of  divine  life,  again  we  are  tempted  to 
despise  it,  and  ask — is   this  all.''     Is   this   moral 


180  IS  MOSES  SCIFNTIFIC 

nature,  which  some  men  can  hardly  distinguish 
from  the  cultivated  instincts  of  the  animal;  is 
this  little  germ  all,  upon  which  you  say  the  great 
and  immortal  system  of  redeemed  souls  is  built? 
We  answer,  look  back  to  its  counterpart,  that 
was  brought  forth  on  the  third  day,  and  then 
behold  into  what  infinite  results  it  has  developed  ; 
if  from  natural  life,  with  such  small  beginning, 
all  this  can  come  forth,  then  we  ask  you  to  con- 
sider what  can  come  forth  from  this  germ  of  a 
divine  life?  As  yet  we  see  this  divine  life  only 
in  its  first  stage;  as  yet  it  has  only  begun  to 
strike  root  into  the  natural,  as  the  natural  struck 
its  root  into  the  material.  We  are  not  yet  in 
the  era  of  the  spiritual,  when  this  germ  of  the 
divine  can  flourish;  we  are  only  in  the  era  of  the 
natural.  As  well  ask  to  see  the  results  of  natural 
life,  while  the  life  was  as  yet  only  rooting  itself 
in  the  inorganic  period,  as  to  ask  for  the  glorious 
results  of  the  spiritual  life,  while  it  is  yet  only 
rooting  itself  in  the  material  period.  "It  doth 
not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,"  any  more 
than  it  could  appear  what  fullness  of  natural  life 
should  be,  w_hile  only  ferns  and  club  mosses 
were  struggling  for  a  foothold  on  the  earth. 

This  is  the  era  of  the  natural,  and  we   cannot 
even  guess  what    the    era    of    the    supernatural 


SIXTH  CREATiyE  DAY  181 

shall  be.  True  to  the  old  principle  implanted 
in  nature  from  the  beginning,  this  highest  form 
of  life  begins  too,  not  in  its  own,  but  in  the 
period  next  below;  but  it  can  flourish,  only 
when  that  glad  and  propitious  era  shall  be 
ushered  in,  which  is  correctly  termed  the  era  of 
the  spiritual.  If  natural  life  flourished  so  luxur- 
iantly, and  blossomed  so  generously,  and  bore  its 
fruit  so  abundantly  in  its  own  period,  why  shall 
we  not  expect  that  the  spiritual  life  shall  do  the 
same,  when  its  own  period  shall  have  arrived? 
We  need  only  carry  out  the  sweep  of  the  arc, 
which  we  have  seen  this  principle  to  make  here 
in  this  visible  world,  to  estimate  what  its  direc- 
tion will  be  there  in  the  invisible  world.  A 
mathematician  need  to  know  only  three  points 
on  a  circle,  to  be  able  to  tell  where  that  circle 
shall  strike  at  any  other  part.  We  have  seen  the 
curvature  of  this  principle  of  life  down  here  in 
this  world;  is  any  one  so  unscientific  as  to  say 
that  the  circle  stops,  v/hen  it  passes  out  of  his 
sight.''  Is  any  one  so  little  acquainted  with 
natural  laws  as  not  to  know  what  to  expect  from 
their  action  anywhere  in  the  future,  however 
remote?  Life  begins  in  one  age  but  it  flourishes 
in  the  next  age.  We  have  seen  this  to  be  true 
of  natural  life  in  general,  and  also  to  be  true  of 


1S2  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

all  the  subdivisions  of  animal  life  as  Dana's 
chart  so  clearly  shows.  But  now,  by  our  own 
experience,  as  well  as  from  Revelation,  we  know 
that  another  and  higher  life  has  begun  in  man. 
Are  we  not  compelled  to  acknowledge  from  the 
sweep  of  this  law,  first,  that  there  will  be  another 
age  succeeding  this,  and  second,  that  this  life 
shall  flourish  then,  as  it  cannot  now  under  these 
unpropitious  conditions?  From  a  scientific 
standpoint  alone,  we  ought  to  know  that  if  we 
have  received  this  gift  of  a  divine  life,  which 
comes  by  what  is  called  the  new  birth,  then 
there  is  a  better  period  ahead,  in  which  we  shall 
know  the  blessed,  and  wonderful,  and  inexpressi- 
ble results  of  this  divine  life,  in  that  new,  the 
divine  era. 

And  now  upon  the  creation  as  a  whole,  the 
divine  commendation  is  pronounced — "and  God 
saw  everything  that  He  had  made,  and  behold  it 
was  very  good."  The  great  work  of  preparation 
had  been  completed,  and  the  wonderful  system 
of  life  had  been  begun,  and  all  was  very  good. 
Part  fitted  to  part;  v/heel  cogged  into  wheel; 
the  great  fly  wheel  of  universal  motion,  con- 
tinuously impelled  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  was 
connected  by  invisible  belts  to  all  parts  of 
creation;  all  forms  cf  life  were  acting  out  their 


SIXTH  GREAT lyE  DAY  183 

function,  and  man  himself  had  been  created  in 
the  divine  image  and  preparing  to  fill  a  divme 
part.  It  was  complete,  it  was  all  well.  Crea- 
tive work  was  done;  now  another  and  higher 
work  was  to  be  entered  upon;  but  this  prepa- 
ration for  that  higher  work,  received  the  divine 
approval — "it  was  very  good." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SEVENTH  CREATIVE  DAY. 

"Thus  the  heavens  and  the  earth  were  finished  and 
all  the  host  of  them,  and  on  the  seventh  day  God 
ended  his  tvork  which  He  had  made;  and  he  rested  on 
the  seventh  day  from  all  his  icork  which  he  had  made. 
And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  sanctified  it,  be- 
cause that  in  it  He  had  rested  from  all  his  work 
which  God  created  and  made. " 

The  great  work  is  finished,  so  far  as  the  earth 
is  concerned,  for  it  is  only  of  the  earth  and  what 
has  relation  to  the  earth,  that  the  record  speaks. 
Again  there  would  be  a  conflict,  if  we  read  the 
announcement  absolutely,  that  all  the  host  of 
heaven  is  finished,  for  Sir  John  Herschell,  saw 
through  his  great  telescope,  what  he  thought  was 
other  systems,  still  going  through  the  changes 
from  nebula  to  settled  planetary  system,  as  ours 
had  done.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  crea- 
tive work  is  still  proceeding  in  other  parts  of 
the  universe,  but  of  this  Moses  is  not  speaking; 
his  words  refer  entirely    to    what    concerns    our 

earth. 

184 


SEVENTH  CREATIVE  DAY  185 

Three  statements  are  made  concerning  the 
seventh  day — on  it  God  ended  his  creative 
work,  on  it  He  rested,  and  He  sanctified  it. 
That  seventh  day,  is  the  present  in  which  we  are 
Hving;  it  is  the  modern  or  human  era  of  geology; 
it  was  to  be  the  period  in  which  man  is  to  re- 
plenish and  subdue  the  earth,  and  with  him,  all 
the  creatures  that  were  serviceable  to  him,  to 
the  displacement  and  extinction  of  the  ferocious 
and  destructive  animals,  as  so  many  species  have 
been  displaced  and  extinguished  before.  This 
fact,  of  cessation  of  all  creative  work,  is  fully 
corroborated  by  geology,  for  no  new  species  have 
been  known  to  have  appeared  since  the  creation 
of  man;  man  is  the  last  term  in  the  ascending 
series  of  creations,  according  to  science.  No 
great  geological  changes  have  taken  place  during 
this  period,  for  nature  has  entered  upon  her 
seventh  day.  There  is  no  record  of  an  evening 
and  a  morning,  as  in  all  the  previous  days,  be- 
cause the  end  of  this  day  is  not  yet;  when  it 
shall  end,  "knoweth  no  man,  no  not  the  angels 
in  heaven." 

The  stage  is  now  completed,  and  all  the 
scaffolding  is  taken  down;  the  arena  is  now 
ready,  in  which  man  is  to  work  out  his  eternal 
destiny,  because  for  this,  it  was   all   along  pre- 


186  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

paring,  and  man  enters  at  once  into  the  posses- 
sion of  his  dominion.  All  the  powers  of  the 
world  are  to  serve  his  use,  all  its  animals  are  to 
help  him  build  up  the  vast  system,  which  might 
be  called,  not  a  christian  but  a  heavenly  civil- 
ization, which  should  be  in  itself  and  in  its  up- 
building, the  great  means  of  discipline  to  fit  him 
for  higher  service,  so  that  graduating  from  office 
in  this  dominion,  he  might  be  prepared  for  the 
thrones  which  await  him  in  the  higher  kingdom, 
where  he  should  be  associated  with  the  very  Son 
of  God,  in  His  larger,  divine  dominion.  For 
even  Eden  was  not  all;  Eden  was  not  the  king- 
dom, but  only  the  school  to  fit  him  for  it. 

Man  is  a  free,  moral  being,  who  must  make 
him  self  perfect,  for  even  God  cannot  make  him 
so;  education  can  come  only  from  discipline  and 
even  suffering,  for  not  the  power  of  the  Almighty 
Himself  can  confer  an  education  to  such  a  being. 
Safeguards  must  be  built  for  his  character,  but 
he  must  build  them  from  within,  as  a  mollusk 
builds  his  own  shell  about  it.  He  must  learn 
to  exercise  power,  so  that  by  and  by,  he  shall  be 
competent  to  rule  angels,  but  he  must  learn  this 
by  exercising  control  first  over  self,  then  over 
animals,  and  then  over  the  whole  world.  And 
all  the  means  of  preparation  for  this  high  destiny 


SEVENTH  CREATINE  DAY  1S7 


were  there  in  Eden;  even  the  forbidden  tree 
was  not  wanting,  for  by  this  he  could  learn  that 
quality,  most  essential  to  a  perfect  moral  agent, 
viz,  obedience  to  the  right.  Perfection  of  moral 
character  is  not  only  to  control,  but  also  to  be 
controled  by  the  Right,  the  True,  the  Good. 
These  are  the  gems  of  his  crown,  without  which 
he  cannot  be  king;  but  a  king  in  the  moral 
kingdom  must  make  his  own  crown,  as  the  lily 
crowns  itself,  from  the  qualities  which  are  pro- 
duced from  its  own  bosom.  That  is  the  charac- 
teristic of  a  moral  being,  that  he  too  becomes  a 
creator;  he  creates  his  own  robe  of  state — his 
beautiful  character;  makes  his  own  sceptre  of 
power — his  knowledge;  produces  his  own  be- 
jeweled  crown — the  divine  qualities  which  blos- 
som out  of  his  godly  heart.  This  dominion  was 
given  man,  that  he  might  have  a  sphere  in 
which  to  practise  as  king,  before  he  should  be 
summoned  to  assume  part '  in  the  mightier, 
more  glorious  kingdom  of  which  Jesus  is  King, 
"for  though  He  were  a  Son,  yet  learned  He  obe- 
dience, by  the  things  which  He  suffered."  This 
moral  gymnasium,  in  which  man  was  to  practise 
royal  and  divine  qualities,  and  so  prepare  to 
"go  up  higher,"  is  all  finished,  and  God  rested 
from  all  his  work,  which  he  created  and  made. 


183  is  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


We  must  not  however  conceive  the  childish 
thought  that  now  God  lay  back  exhausted  with 
his  week's  work,  and  sleeps  or  rests  as  too  many 
men  rest  on  their  Sabbath  day.  Creative  work 
on  earth  is  done,  but  now  God's  moral  work 
begins.  Said  Jesus — "My  Father  worketh 
hitherto  and  I  work,"  and  this  is  no  contradic- 
tion of  Genesis.  Rest,  in  the  highest  sense 
does  not  mean  cessation  from  work,  but  change ; 
a  child  really  works  harder  in  his  play  than  he 
had  worked  at  his  study,  but  yet  it  is  rest. 
This  high  work,  on  which  the  Creator  now  enters 
in  the  earth,  is  that  which  is  so  thoroughly  con- 
genial to  his  nature,  that  it  is  rest;  engagement 
upon  material  things  is  ivork,  upon  moral  things 
is  rest,  and  into  this  condition  Grace  is  to  bring 
its  subjects  too.  If  man  had  remained  as  he 
was  created,  this  seventh  day  to  him  also  would 
have  been  a  day  of  rest,  "for  he  that  is  entered 
into  his  rest,  he  al§o  hath  ceased  from  his  own 
works,  as  God  did  from  his."  There  would  have 
been  no  curse  to  him,  no  thorns  and  briars,  no 
sweat  of  the  brow,  no  hard  struggle  for  daily 
bread,  no  bodily  infirmity  to  make  labor  an  ex- 
hausting weariness,  no  enmity  between  Satan 
and  the  seed  of  the  woman,  but  the  work  would 
have  been  a  delight  and  therefore  a  rest.     Work 


SEVENTH  CREATIVE  DAY  189 

there  would  have  been,  for  capacity  for  endless 
progress  means  necessity  for  endless  work; 
glorious  opportunity  means  earnest  effort,  nec- 
essarily. 

What  might  have  been!  Had  man  exercised 
his  divine  quality  of  freedom  under  the  divine 
law  of  obedience  to  Right^what  might  have 
been?  But  being  a  free  moral  being,  he  had  the 
power  of  choice;  he  could  obey  Right  or  could 
disobey;  he  could  not  be  deprived  of  the  power 
of  disobedience,  and  yet  remain  a  free  agent. 
Being  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God,  he 
reached  forth  to  claim  what  belongs  only  to  God. 
"Ye  shall  be  as  gods,"  that  was  the  temptation; 
he  reached  too  far,  lost  his  balance,  and  fell. 
And  so  God's  great  work  was  marred,  and  all  his 
plans  seemed  to  be  foiled  when  they  had  just 
reached  completion. 

Here  too,  science  corroborates  revelation.  It 
knows  well  that  something  is  wrong  in  the  world, 
but  what  it  is,  science  cannot  tell.  There  is  a 
disease  at  the  heart  of  things,  but  science  is 
confined  to  the  extremities  of  nature;  it  sees 
the  irregular  pulse-beats,  sees  the  fever  flush  the 
brow  of  nature,  sees  the  extremities  wither  and 
die,  but  science  knows  nothing  of  nature's  heart- 
disease.      There    is   not    a    naturalist,    however 


190  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

skeptical  he  may  be  about  revelation,  but  knows 
that  man  is  out  of  harmony  with  nature,  and 
most  of  all  is  out  of  harmony  with  himself.  A 
great  break  has  occurred  somewhere;  the  wheels 
of  the  world  go  with  a  jar,  as  though  a  cog  had 
been  broken.  There  is  a  natural  gravity  toward 
wrong;  something  makes  it  easy  to  sin,  but  hard 
to  do  right;  there  is  some  force  pulling  down- 
ward as  the  moon  pulls  the  tides.  What  is  this 
disturbing  cause.-* 

From  the  perturbations  of  the  planet  Ura- 
nus, which  could  not  be  accounted  for  by 
any  known  cause,  Leverrier  was  convinced 
that  there  must  be  another  unknown  planet  out- 
side the  orbit  of  Uranus,  to  cause  this  disturb- 
ance. He  made  his  calculations  and  wrote  to 
his  friend  Dr.  Galle  in  Berlin,  to  direct  his  large 
refracting  telescope  on  a  certain  night  at  a  spot 
in  the  heavens  indicated,  where  he  would  proba- 
bly find  the  undiscovered  planet.  Dr.  Galle  did 
as  directed,  and  found  it  within  one  degree  of  the 
spot  described.  This  discovery  of  Neptune  from 
theoretical  calculation,  which  required  another 
planet,  to  account  for  the  disturbing  influence 
on  Uranus,  ranks  among  the  most  brilliant  of 
the  scientific  feats  of  the  present  century.  Like- 
wise, there  are  great  perturbations  in   the  moral 


SEyHNTH  CKEATiyE  DAY  191 

realm;  science  realizes  the  fact,  but  she  cannot 
point  her  telescope,  so  as  to  discover  the  dis- 
turbing influence. 

And  right  there  Revelation  comes  in  to  tell  us 
the  cause  and  its  cure.  Science  fully  corrobo- 
rates Revelation  in  announcing  the  effect,  but 
she  stands  reverently  at  the  door  with  unshod 
feet,  while  Revelation  enters  into  the  sick 
chamber  to  remove  the  cause.  If  the  watch  is 
broken,  only  the  watch-maker  can  repair  it.  If 
the  main-spring  of  humanity  is  broken,  no  one 
but  the  Creator  can  make  it  good.  Just  here  is 
disclosed  the  wonders  of  Redemption,  which  is 
a  new  moral  Creation.  It  discloses  the  power 
which  originally  made,  as  once  more,  but  now 
in  Grace,  willing  to  restore.  Revelation  comes 
to  deal  with  a  free  moral  being,  and  tells  him 
how  he  may  come  to  the  great  Maker,  and  have 
the  injury  repaired.  But  in  this  there  must  be 
a  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  man;  he  must 
be  willing  to  come  to  the  Creator,  who  has  come 
down  into  flesh,  in  order  to  become  accessible 
to  men,  so  that  man  may  be  fully  restored.  But 
men  must  act  upon  their  own  freedom:  this 
prerogative  will  never  be  invaded.  Revelation 
can  but  invite,  but  it  will  not  compel,  for  then 
man's   moral   quality,  would   be  gone.      It  tells 


192  76  MOSES  SClENTItlC 

them  that  it  were  vain  for  the  broken  being  to 
attempt  to  repair  itself;  let  him  but  come  to 
the  Creator  and  Repairer  of  humanity,  and,  all 
shall  be  made  right.  All  this  is  beyond  science; 
she  can  but  give  her  assent  to  the  facts,  but  can 
say  nothing  about  the  repairs,  for  the  material 
creation  alone  is  the  domain  of  science,  but  this 
is  a  moral  creation. 

But  all  this  was  not  so  at  the  first;  the  seventh 
day  was  meant,  not  for  repair,  but  for  growth  in 
the  image  of  God,  for  moral  development  and 
spiritual  culture.  That  purpose  was  frustrated 
by  the  entrance  of  sin,  and  by  that  entrance, 
the  race  has  been  set  back  a  whole  geological 
period.  The  millenium  will  be  again,  what 
Eden  was  when  man  lost  it,  but  the  whole  time 
between  Eden  and  the  personal  return  of  our 
Lord  to  finish  his  new  creation,  has  been  lost 
time,  for  it  is  all  required  to  bring  the  race  back 
again  to  the  moral  plane  where  God  made  it  to 
begin. 

"And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  sanc- 
tified it,  because  that  in  it  He  had  rested  from 
all  his  work  which  God  created  and  made."  Now 
that  we  cannot  enter  with  the  Creator  into  the 
enjoyment  of  his  Sabbath  rest,  but  must  struggle 
with  the  weeds  and  groan  under  the  curse,  God 


SEVENTH  CREATV/E  DAY  193 


has  given  us  a  little  Sabbath,  commemorative  of 
his  own,  and  anticipative  of  the  "rest  which 
remaineth  for  the  people  of  God."  Six  days  of 
work,  occupied  creative  week,  and  a  seventh  for 
rest;  six  days  for  the  material,  and  one  for  the 
spiritual.  The  evening  and  the  morning  which 
intervened  between  the  creative  days,  were  the 
periods  of  rest,  and  then  the  whole  seventh  day 
was  also  a  day  of  rest;  so  the  time  between 
evening  and  morning  is  to  be  a  period  of  daily 
rest  for  man,  but  he  also  needs  a  whole  day  in 
seven,  in  which  he  shall  rest  from  all  his  work. 
But  this  seventh  day,  unlike  the  daily  rests, 
is  to  be  sanctified,  that  is — set  apart  to  a  holy 
purpose.  Therefore  comes  the  command,  "Re- 
member the  seventh  day  to  keep  it/zt?//. "  Some 
think  that  this  is  only  a  Jewish  regulation,  from 
which  we  are  free;  but  it  will  be  seen  that  its 
basis  is  creation;  "for  in  six  days  the  Lord  made 
heaven  and  earth,  the  sea  and  all  that  in  them 
is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day  wherefore  the 
Lord  blessed  the  Sabbath  day  and  hallowed  it." 
If  this  be  only  a  Jewish  regulation,  in  which  we 
have  no  part,  then  the  heaven,  the  earth,  the 
sea  and  all  that  in  them  is,  must  also  belong  to 
the  Jews  in  which  we  have  also  no  part,  for  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath  is   founded    upon  the 


194  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

creation;  then  let  us  turn  over  to  the  Jews,  what 
we  have  taken  from  them,  for  to  them  belongs 
creation,  if  to  them  alone  belongs  the  Sabbath. 

A  Sabbath  rest  is  founded  upon  human  nature, 
as  well  as  upon  creation,  and  the  necessity  of 
its  observance  is  as  wide  as  creation  and  the 
human  race.  Man's  physical  being  requires 
this  seventh  day  rest;  less  will  not  satisfy  the 
body,  more  will  not  furnish  him  daily  bread. 
During  the  French  Revolution  of  1779,  when 
lawlessness  ran  riot,  divine  as  well  as  human 
government  was  to  be  overthrown;  it  was 
enacted  that  the  Sabbath  should  be  abolished, 
but  that  a  tenth  day  should  be  observed  for  rest. 
For  three  years  they  attempted  to  observe  this 
statute,  but,  atheistic  as  the  Government  was, 
it  was  compelled  to  exscind  it  from  the  statute 
book  and  re-establish  the  seventh  day  rest  once 
more,  because  the  necessities  of  man  and  beast 
required  it. 

Six  days  man  shall  use,  as  God  did,  in  work 
upon  material  things  carrying  the  world  up  to  a 
higher  plane  of  progress,  but  the  seventh  must  be 
employed  for  the  nobler  purpose  of  the  soul. 
And  let  the  same  principle  pervade  man's  days 
of  work  as  pervaded  God's.  From  the  time 
when  cosmical  matter  lay  dark   and   quiescent, 


SEVENTH  CREATURE  DAY  195 

waiting  to  be  quickened  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
up  to  the  time  when  creation  was  crowned  by  a 
creature  made  in  the  likeness  of  God,  there  was 
orderly  advancement  and  progress.  So  in  all 
man's  days  of  work,  let  there  be  advancement 
toward  a  better  civilization,  let  there  be  a  more 
complete  subjugation  of  all  nature's  powers,  and 
a  more  complete  use  of  them  toward  reaching 
that  high  ideal  of  the  condition  of  the  race  which 
is  known  as  millenium;  let  there  be  progress  in 
man's  own  condition,  physically,  socially,  in- 
tellectually; let  the  fields  yield  better  harvests, 
the  garden  more  beautiful  Howers,  the  city  be 
more  wholesome  and  healthy,  and  teem  with  all 
the  conveniences;  let  the  home  be  enriched  with 
all  that  can  sweeten  and  refine  with  means  of 
happiness.  Six  days  of  every  week  are  to  be 
devoted  to  improvement  in  everything,  as  were 
the  six  creative  days;  they  are  to  be  given  to 
"replenish   and   subdue   the   earth." 

Replenish  the  earth  with  everything  that  will 
make  it  brighter  and  better;  fill  it  with  all  that 
will  tend  to  make  it  a  happy  home  for  the  sons  of 
God.  Subdue  it  until  its  wild  and  untamed  powers, 
like  so  many  untrained  colts,  shall  all  become 
docile  and  serviceable  to  man.  The  lightning 
frolics  in  the  air,  seize  it   and    subdue  it;   steam 


lOG  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


and  explosives  rupture  the  earth  with  volcanic 
destruction;  seize  them  boldly  and  subdue  them, 
they  will  make  mighty  agencies  for  good;  light 
colors  the  rainbow  and  glorifies  the  cloud,  how 
it  would  glorify  man's  own  life!  subdue  it  to 
human  purposes;  the  winds  rave  wildly  over  the 
seas,  the  tides  waste  their  immense  energy,  sub- 
due them  and  turn  them  into  practical  use.  Give 
six  days  to  these  useful  purposes  to  replenish 
the  earth  and  fill  it  again  with  beauty  and  ver- 
dure, to  bring  all  the  wasted  powers  of  nature 
into  complete  subjection  for  the  benefit  of  man. 
This  is  a  noble  use  in  which  to  spend  six  days 
of  every  week;  "but  the  seventh  da)'  is  the 
Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God;  in  it  thou  shalt 
not  do  any  work."  The  use  to  be  made  of  the 
Sabbath  day,  is  as  necessary  to  the  welfare  of 
man  as  that  of  the  six  days.  The  individual  or 
the  nation  which  disobeys  this  command  of  God 
is  simply  bent  upon  its  own  ruin.  Says  di- 
vine Wisdom — "he  that  sinneth  against  Me, 
wrongeth  his  own  soul." 

But  how  is  the  Sabbath  to  be  sanctified  ? 
Just  as  God  sanctified  it,  by  resting  from  all  his 
secular  work  and  entering  upon  a  higher  work, 
the  spiritual  and  moral.  This  seventh,  is  God's 
day    of    redemption.      Whatever    will    subserve 


SIXTH  CREATINE  DAY  197 

one's  own  or  other's  redemption,  sanctifies  the 
Sabbath.  It  is  to  be  given  exclusively  to  the 
spiritual  welfare,  and  rigorously  protected  from 
all  secular  encroachments.  The  immortal  part 
of  man  must  not  be  robbed  by  the  material  and 
perishable  part.  He  who  uses  the  six  days  of 
the  week  wholly  in  the  interests  of  the  body, 
and  then  uses  the  seventh  simply  for  the  resting 
of  the  body,  so  that  it  can  give  itself  again  ex- 
clusively and  more  vigorously  to  the  acquisition 
of  material  things,  robs  the  prince  to  pay  the 
slave;  he  subordinates  the  immortal  to  the 
temporal,  he  beggars  eternity  for  the  enrichment 
of  time. 

At  the  end  of  his  creative  work  "God  saw 
everything  that  He  had  made,  and  behold  it  was 
very  good,"  The  contemplation  of  his  finished 
work,  was  the  joy  of  his  Sabbath  rest.  Let 
man  so  spend  his  six  days,  that  the  review  of 
them  will  give  satisfaction  on  the  seventh.  The 
use  of  the  seventh  day,  which  God  commanded, 
will  fit  men  for  that  eternal  Sabbath  of  rest 
which  will  open  the  new  week  of  heaven,  that 
will  never  end.  No  evening  or  morning  closes 
up  the  seventh  day  of  creation;  there  will  be  no 
close  to  the  eternal  Sabbath,  when  "the  new 
heavens  and  the    new    earth    wherein    dwellelh 


J!)S  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


righteousness"  shall  have  opened  the  blessed  era 
for  man;  and  for  this, all  the  previous  days  are 
to  be  a  preparation,  as  all  God's  six  days  were 
a  preparation  to  the  seventh. 


CHAPTER    X. 

METHOD  OF  CREATION. 

Revelation,  whether  in  the  Bible  or  in  Nature, 
is  written,  not  in  the  language  of  science  but  in 
the  language  of  appearances,  for  in  no  other  way 
could  it  be  understood  in  any  age  by  the  mass 
of  men.  All  men  can  see  that  "the  heavens  de- 
clare the  glory  of  God  and  the  firmament  showeth 
his  handiwork,"  but  that  glory  is  disclosed  in  the 
language  of  appearances.  The  earth  appears 
to  be  the  center  of  the  universe  and  the  heavenly 
bodies  to  revolve  around  it;  the  sun  appears  to 
rise  and  set;  the  moon  appears  to  be  larger 
than  any  of  the  fixed  stars;  the  planets  appear 
to  be  only  stars  like  all  the  rest  of  the  heavenly 
bodies.  And  so  in  Revelation,  creation  appears 
to  have  been  accomplished  in  six  natural  days; 
it  appears  to  have  been  done  by  God's  simple 
word  of  power;  the  sun  and  moon  appear  to 
come  into  existence  on  the  fourth  day.  But 
all  appearances  need  to  be    translated.      To  the 

child,  looking  down  the  railroad  track,  the  rails 

199 


200  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

appear  to  approach  each  other,  the  farther  they 
recede;  the  window  pane,  through  which  the 
house  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  can  be 
seen,  appears  to  be  larger  than  the  house,  for 
how  else  could  the  one  be  seen  through  the 
other?  Does  then  Revelation,  does  Nature, 
does  Observation  teach  us  falsely?  No,  they  do 
not  teach  us  falsely;  their  language  of  appear- 
ances must  be  interpreted  for  us  by  correct 
science.  Now  the  only  teacher  to  explain  to 
us  what  Revelation  says  about  nature,  is  science; 
for  God  never  does  for  us  what  we  can  do  for 
ourselves.  We  have  accepted  the  explanation  of 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  as  given  by  science, 
and  the  record  then  becomes  luminous;  science 
has  established  the  inspiration  of  that  chapter 
as  it  has  never  before  been  established.  But  now 
one  more  interpretation  remains  to  be  given, 
viz,  the  method  of  creation;  if  we  are  to  know 
how  God  did  it,  science  alone  can  explain. 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  case  of  original 
matter,  of  the  introduction  of  life,  and  of  the 
endowment  of  man  with  a  moral  nature,  a  special 
word  is  used — "bara;"  but  all  the  other  acts  de- 
scribed by  a  peculiar  and  invariable  phrase — 
"and  God  said,  let  there  be."  To  matter,  to 
which  vibratory  motion  had   been   imparted   by 


METHOD  OF  CREATION  201 


the  Spirit,  God  said— let  there  be  hght;  to  the 
clouds  which  held  vast  seas  in  their  bosoms,  God 
said — let  there  be  a  firmament;  to  the  waters 
God  said — let  the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly ; 
to  the  earth,  God  said — let  the  earth  bring  forth 
cattle.  In  each  instance,  God  spake  to  what 
had  been  already  created,  and  commanded  it  to 
CO  operate  with  Him,  to  bring  forth  something 
else;  God  did  not  create  alone,  nor  did  nature 
bring  forth  alone,  but  the  record  declares  that 
in  each  case  both  were  co-operating  causes.  The 
different  things  and  species  of  life,  were  not 
created  off-hand  by  an  immediate  act  of  God; 
of  course  He  could  have  done  so,  but  He  did 
not  choose  to  create  in  that  way;  His  method 
was  regular,  orderly  and  always  by  means  of 
natural  causes ;^He  gave  nature  a  new  power, 
and  in  each  case  this  became  a  secondary  cause. 
God  speaks,  not  to  Himself,  but  to  that  second- 
ary cause,  and  by  means  of  this,  each  separate 
act  of  creation  is  produced;  in  the  case  of  man, 
however.  He  speaks  to  Himself — "let  us  make 
man  in  our  image  after  our  likeness"  for  here 
the  creation  is  immediate,  and  without  any 
secondary  cause. 

These  are  the  data  which  the  record  gives    us 
as  to  the  method  of  creation;  now   for   the    in- 


202  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


terpretatiori,  we  must  come  to  science,  for  it  is 
not  the  object  of  scripture  to  reveal  what  we  may 
ourselves  discover,  and  it  would  have  perma- 
nently enfeebled  the  mind  of  the  race,  if  the 
stimulus  of  research  had  been  rendered  unnec- 
essary. This  is  the  last  office  we  shall  ask 
science  to  render  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis.  Astronomy,  geology, 
biology  have  explained  the  rest  of  it.  Once 
more  we  will  ask  science  to  explain  and  tell  us 
the  method  of  creation. 

But  from  our  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the 
past,  we  shall  expect  that  this  last  interpreta- 
tion will  also  be  met  by  violent  opposition  and 
frightened  protest.  When  science  explained 
the  record  by  transferring  the  center  of  the 
planetary  system  from  the  earth  to  the  sun,  its 
words  were  scouted  and  its  advocates  were  perse- 
cuted; does  not  the  Bible  say  that  the  sun  rises 
and  sets?  does  it  not  say  that  God  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  the  earth  >  Galileo  is  an  atheist,  if  he 
assert  the  contrary.  When  science  explained  that 
the  world  was  sustained,  not  directly  by  the  finger 
of  God,  but  by  the  power  of  gravitation,  again 
the  opposition  was  great,  for  it  seemed  that  then 
God  would  be  removed  from  the  course  of  nature. 
When  science  explained  that    the    antiquity   of 


METHOD  OF  CREATION  203 


the  earth  exceeded  6,000  years,  again  it  was 
violsntly  assailed,  because  it  contradicted  the 
Bible.  And  when  science  established  the  fact 
that  man  has  lived  upon  the  earth,  much  longer 
than  was  supposed  by  deducing  a  chronology 
from  the  Bible,  again  the  opposition  was  up  in 
arms.  But  truth  must  prevail;  and  afterward  it 
was  found  that  the  authority  and  credibility  of 
the  Bible  were  in  no  wise  impeached,  but  were 
rendered  more  secure  than  ever. 

This  opposition  to  whoever  or  whatever  ap- 
proaches our  citadel  of  Truth,  is  proper  and 
natural.  No  one  must  come  within  our  defense 
except  he  can  give  the  password  and  comes  as  a 
friend;  we  s'nall  firmly  hold  to  the  old,  until  the 
new  has  proven  itself  better.  Our  education, 
traditions,  and  beliefs  held  from  childhood,  are 
very  dear  and  will  not  easily  be  given  up.  So 
that  when  science  once  more  comes  to  perform 
the  part  of  interpreter  and  tell  us  how  God  cre- 
ated, it  will  be  hard  for  us  to  give  up  our  heredi- 
tary beliefs,  and  science  will  again  be  resisted. 
But  if  this  last  interpretation  be  thoroughly  es- 
tablished in  truth,  we  shall  find  that  our  dear  old 
Book  will  not  suffer  here,  any  more  than  it  did 
in  the  other  instances  when  science  took  from 
men  their  false  views,  and  gave  them  true  ones. 


204  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

It  is  not  the  Book  which  needs  to  be  corrected, 
but  our  interpretation  of  it. 

What  is  God's  method  of  action  now?  Science 
finds  that  God  does  not  now  accomplish  results 
directly,  but  always  by  the  use  of  means;  there 
is  always  a  natural  cause  to  produce  a  ceitain 
effect,  as  well  as  a  divine  cause.  We  do  not 
now  see  species  created,  but  we  see  that  indi- 
viduals are  always  produced  by  evolution  from 
previous  material.  The  seed,  by  means  of  the 
powers  with  which  God  has  endowed  it,  devel- 
opes  into  the  root,  the  stalk,  the  leaf,  and  finally 
the  fruit.  From  the  egg  is  evolved  the  embryo, 
the  chick,  and  then  the  air-breathing  fowl.  A 
man  becomes  what  he  is  by  a  slow  process  of 
evolution  from  a  microscopic  spherule  of  proto- 
plasm, and  yet  this  does  not  in  the  least  interfere 
with  our  belief  that  God  made  him.  Individuals, 
everywhere  and  always  have  been  created  by 
evolution;  as  at  the  first,  so  still,  God  speaks 
to  co-operating  natural  causes  and  says — let 
there  be,  and  there  is;  it  is  God  working,  but 
never  alone;  He  contributes  the  power,  but  that 
other  cause  uses  it. 

This  is  God's  method  of  working  in  all  those 
instances  where  we  can  follow  Him,  and  the 
question  is,  did  He  use    a    different    method   in 


METHOD  OF  CREATION  205 

those  instances  where  we  cannot  follow  Hinri? 
This  is  His  way  of  producing  individuals,  did 
He  have  a  different  way  of  producing  species? 
His  method  has  always  been  from  the  lower  to 
the  higher;  from  the  simple  to  the  more  com- 
plex; to  previous  material  He  imparted  a  new 
power,  and  this  material  thus  endowed,  then 
became  the  cause  to  produce  the  next  higher, 
as  explained  in  the  record.  When  life  came 
forth,  God  gave  to  each  form  the  power  of  repro- 
duction— "after  his  kind;"  but  does  that  mean, 
that  kind  shall  be  no  better  than  before?  If  the 
parent  is  coarse,  does  reproduction  "after  his 
kind,"  mean  that  the  offspring  shall  be  equally 
as  coarse?  if  rude  and  ugly,  the  offspring  shall 
be  the  same?  If  this  were  the  law  of  reproduc- 
tion, there  could  be  no  improvement.  Under 
better  conditions  improvement  is  possible,  and 
still  reproduction  is  "after  his  kind."  If  under 
this  law  there  is  a  possibility  for  improvement 
for  present  individuals,  why  could  there  not 
have  been  such  possibility  of  improvement  for 
individuals  of  long  ago,  yes  as  far  back  as  you 
wish  to  carry  thought?  If  that  were  so,  it  would 
be  hard  to  find  first  individuals,  for  the  creation 
of  life  would  be,  as  the  record  tells  us,  was  the 
creation  in  the  first  three  days.     We  could   not 


206  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

tell  when  light  began  to  be,  for  it  was  slowly 
evolved  from  vibrating  matter,  we  could  not 
tell  when  the  firmament  began  to  be,  for  the  ex- 
panse was  slowly  evolved  from  the  cloud ;  we 
could  not  tell  when  dry  land  began  to  be,  be- 
cause the  top  of  earth's  wrinkles  would  appear 
above  the  water  and  the  next  moment  be  over- 
flowed again;  now  it  would  be  above  the  tide, 
and  now  be  beneath  the  tide.  Now  if  this  same 
method  of  evolution  which  prevailed  on  the  first 
three  creative  days,  prevailed  also  during  the  last 
three  days,  then  all  individuals  which  are  now 
conveniently  classed  together  to  form  species 
began  alike,  viz,  by  a  slow  process  of  evolution. 
In  the  first  three  days  of  creation,  the  phrase — 
"and  God  said — let  there  be,"  science  has  ex- 
plained, mean  that  God  made  nature  a  co-operat- 
ing cause,  and  these  two  causes,  the  super- 
natural and  the  natural,  produced  all  the  results. 
In  the  last  three  days,  where  the  record  tells  of 
life,  we  find  the  same  phrase,  but  does  it  mean 
there  the  reverse  of  what  it  meant  before? 
There  it  meant  that  God  produced  light,  firma- 
ment, dry  land  by  means  of  a  co-operating  cause ; 
here  can  the  same  phrase  mean  that  God  pro- 
duced vegetation  and  animals,  through  all  the 
ascending  grades,  without  a  cooperating  cause  ? 


METHOD  OF  CREATION  207 

In  the  first  half  of  creation  God  adopted  one 
method,  but  in  the  second  half  did  He  adopt 
another,  when  both  methods  are  described  by 
the  same  phrase?  This  would  make  Him  the 
God  of  confusion,  a  changeable  God. 

But  it  is  time  to  ask — what  is  evolution?  This 
is  a  word  of  such  bad  associations,  that  it  still 
is  dreaded,  as  a  child  dreads  a  chamber  which 
she  has  been  told  was  haunted,  even  after  she 
knows  there  are  no  ghosts.  "Evolution  is  the 
divine  method  of  creation,  as  gravitation  is  the 
divine  method  of  sustentation."  God  supports 
worlds  in  space,  not  by  holding  them  on  his 
fingers,  but  by  tying  them  to  each  other  by  the 
cables  of  gravity;  so  God  creates  worlds,  not  by 
moulding  with  his  own  fingers,  but  by  working 
through  natural  causes.  This  is  theistic  evolution, 
which  differs  from  materialistic  evolution,  as 
theistic  philosophy  differs  from  materialistic 
philosophy.  It  will  not  do  to  deny  theistic 
evolution,  any  more  than  it  will  do  to  deny 
theistic  science.  Of  course  there  are  atheistic 
scientists,  agnostic  scientists  and  deistic  scien- 
tists; but  we  must  not  therefore  conclude  that 
science  cannot  be  theistic.  There  are  too  many 
Christian  men,  who  believe  in  a  personal  God, 
a  divine  revelation,  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ, 


208  tS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

the  personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  efficacy  of 
prayer,  but  who  yet  believe  in  the  creation  of 
the  world  after  the  manner  of  evolution;  there 
are  too  many  of  these  sincere,  and  evangelical 
believers,  for  any  one  to  brand  evolution  with 
the  mark  of  Cain,  and  turn  it  out  of  the  house- 
hold of  faith. 

Three  views  of  the  creation  of  man  have  been 
held;  the  first  is  that  of  the  pious  child  who 
believes  that  God  made  it  of  dust,  just  as  itself 
makes  a  man  out  of  snow.  The  second  is  that 
of  Topsey,who  ^says — "I  wasn't  made,  specs  I 
growed;"  this  is  the  view  of  the  materialist,  who 
believes  that  God  had  no  hand  in  the  making 
of  us.  The  third  is  the  view  of-  the  christian 
evolutionist,  who  says — God  made  me,  and  I 
growed  too;  God  and  nature  co-operated  in  my 
creation.  All  christians  believe  that  the  latter 
is  true  of  known  individuals,  and  theistic  evolu- 
tionists believe  it  was  also  true  of  all  individuals 
first,  last  or  middle.  That  there  was  a  first  man 
and  woman,  all  christians  believe,  for  it  was  a 
single  man  into  whose  nostrils  God  breathed 
the  breath  of  life,  so  that  man  became  a  living 
soul;  but  that  the  body  of  that  first  man  was 
immediately  formed  out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground, 
as  the  child  makes  its  snow  man,  the  evolution- 


METHOD  OF  CRE/ITlOh]  200 


ist  does  not  believe,  "And  the  Lord  God  formed 
man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into 
his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,  and  man  became  a 
living  soul."  But  when  did  God  form  man  of 
the  dust  of  the  ground?  Was  it  the  very 
moment  before  He  breathed  into  him  the  breath 
of  life?  Did  He  form  man  immediately  of  dust, 
when  all  else  He  formed  mediately?  Was  it 
necessarily  unorganized  dust  which  He  then  took 
up  and  shaped  into  a  human  form?  God  formed 
my  body  of  the  dust  of  the  ground  too,  but  He 
did  not  form  it  in  that  way;  it  was  by  a  long 
process  and  that  not  directly,  but  through  other 
co-operating  causes.  Why  should  it  be  thought 
strange  that  He  formed  the  first  body  into  which 
He  then  breathed  the  breath  of  divine  life,  just 
as  He  has  continued  to  form  all  other  bodies  of 
the  dust  of  the  ground.  The  record  does  not 
tell  us  of  the  method,  but  has  left  it  to  science 
to  come  and  interpret  the  ways  of  God  in  crea- 
tion, by  the  study  of  the  ways  of  God  in  preser- 
vation, which  is  but  another  name  of  continued 
creation. 

The  difference  in  the  belief  of  an  evolutionist 
and  a  direct  creationist,  is  not  whether  it  was 
God  who  created  or  not,  but  simply  as  to  the 
method  of  his  creation.    The  latter  believes  that 


210  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC}' 

God  alone  created  each  species  directly,  and 
without  any  intermediate  causes,  while  the 
former  believes  that  God  proceeds  in  all  his  work 
according  to  the  same  universal  method;  as  He 
creates  individuals  now,  so  He  created  the  whole 
race,  by  means  of  lower  and  co-operating  causes. 
Theistic  evolution  is  as  christian  and  scriptural 
in  its  views,  as  is  direct-creation;  one  interprets 
God  as  adopting  the  same  method  in  all  his 
works,  the  other  interprets  Him  as  adopting 
two  methods,  one  for  the  first  pair  of  individuals, 
and  the  other  method  for  all  other  individuals. 
Geology  finds  that  whole  species  have  been  ex- 
terminated and  new  ones  have  taken  their  place; 
species  have  changed  many  times  in  the  course 
of  geological  ages,  but  how  did  they  change? 
Evolutionists  say — they  were  transmuted;  direct 
creationists  say — they  were  replaced.  The  one 
class  say — as  conditions  of  life  change,  the 
species  change  too,  so  as  to  correspond  with  the 
new  environment;  those  which  did  not  change 
had  to  die,  but  those  which  changed  to  meet  the 
new  conditions  lived,  and  so  what  we  call  new 
species  came  into  being.  But  the  other  class 
of  interpreters  say — as  one  species  died  out,others 
were  created  at  once  and  off-hand  to  take  their 
place.     The  one  say,  God  and  Nature  constantly 


METHOD  OF  CREATION  211 

and  consistently  co-operate  together  to  create,  as 
well  as  to  sustain;  the  other  say — life  is  contin- 
ued on  earth  by  the  alternation  of  supernatural 
and  natural  processes,  now  by  the  direct  and 
now  by  the  indirect  action  of  God;  in  the  in- 
troduction of  the  first  pairs,  God  acted  directly, 
but  in  the  introduction  of  all  subsequent  pairs, 
God  acted  indirectly.  The  one  say— God  has 
but  one  method  of  operation  in  creating  new 
species  as  in  perpetuating  them,  and  in  replacing 
old  ones  with  new;  the  other  say — God  has  two 
methods  of  operation,  and  reports  now  to  one 
method  and  now  to  the  other  method,  and  again 
to  the  first,  and  then  again  to  the  second.  The 
difference  therefore  is  only  as  to  method,  not  as 
to  fact. 

The  agency  of  God  in  evolution  may  be  illus- 
trated by  the  use  of  the  word — manufacture. 
Etymologically,  the  word  means,  hand-made, 
and  originally  it  was  applicable.  The  f^ax  was 
sowed  by  hand,  was  reaped,  hatcheled,  spun, 
and  woven  by  hand,  and  the  product  was  liter- 
ally a  manufacture.  But  now  this  product  is 
made  altogether  by  machinery;  the  seed  is  sown 
by  machinery,  reaped,  cleaned,  spun,  and  woven 
by  machinery  entirely,  and  still  we  call  it  a  man- 
ufacture.     But  is  the. agency  of  man  eliminated 


312  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

by  machinery,  because  linen  is  not  now  literally 
a  manufacture?  Man  stands  now  one  remove 
back  from  the  result,  but  is  the  result  any  the 
less  his?  Does  not  the  machinery,  by  which 
such  results  are  secured,  prove  the  agency  of 
man  all  the  more,  even  though  the  result  is  not 
now  first-hand?  Says  Le  Conte — "Evolution 
not  only,  is  not  identical  with  materialism,  but 
to  deep  thinkers  it  has  not  added  a  feather's 
weight  to  the  probability  or  reasonableness  of 
materialism.  Evolution  is  one  thing,  material- 
ism is  quite  another  thing;  now  and  always,  there 
has  been  the  alternative — theism  or  materialism, 
God  operating  nature,  or  nature  operating  itself." 
Says  Dr.  McCosh,  e.x-President  of  Princeton 
College — "There  is,  or  was  a  widespread  idea 
that  the  doctrine  of  development  is  adverse  to 
religion;  this  has  risen  mainly  from  the  circum- 
stance that  it  seems  to  remove  God  altogether, 
or  at  least  to  a  greater  distance  from  his  works, 
and  this  has  been  increased  by  the  circumstance 
that  the  theory  has  been  turned  to  atheistic 
purposes.  But  it  must  be  emphatically  declared 
that  we  are  to  look  on  evolution,  simply  as  the 
method  by  which  God  works.  It  is  forgotten 
that  when  Newton  proclaimed  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation, it  was  urged  that  he   thereby   took   from 


METHOD  OF  CREATION  213 

God  an  important  part  of  his  works,  to  hand  it 
over  to  material  mechanism.  The  time  has  now 
come  when  people  must  judge  of  a  supposed 
scientific  theory,  not  from  the  faith  or  unbelief 
of  the  discoverer,  but  from  the  evidence  in  its 
behalf.  They  will  find  that  whatever  is  true  is 
also  good,  and  will  in  the  end  be  favorable  to 
religion.  Because  God  executes  his  purposes 
by  agents,  which  it  should  be  observed,  He  has 
himself  appointed,  we  are  not  therefore  to  argue 
that  He  does  not  continue  to  act,  that  He  does 
not  now  act.  God  acts  in  his  works  now,  quite 
as  much  as  He  did  in  their  original  creation.  The 
effects  follow,  the  product  is  evolved,  because 
He  wills  it,  just  as  plants  generate  only  when 
there  is  light  shining  on  them.  I  am  not  pre- 
pared to  prove  that  evolution  is  the  best  way  in 
which  God  could  have  proceeded,  or  that  there 
are  no  other  ways  equally  good  in  which  He  acts 
in  other  worlds.  All  that  I  profess  to  do,  is  to 
show  that  the  method  is  not  unworthy  of  God; 
that  it  is  suited  to  man's  nature;  that  it  accom- 
plishes some  good  end.  It  is  to  this  extent 
that  I  would  justify  the  way  of  God  to  man." 

But  suppose  now  that  evolution  shall  become 
as  thoroughly  established  as  is  gravitation,  what 
will    become    of  the    record    of    Moses?     This 


214  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

chapter  is  not  written  to  argue  the  cause  of 
evolution,  but  to  state  in  the  most  incomplete 
way,  some  of  the  grounds  on  which  this  view  is 
based,  and  to  show  that  still  there  will  be  no 
conflict  between  Revelation  and  Science,  for  the 
record  in  first  chapter  of  Genesis  can  easily  bear 
the  interpretation  which  evolution  would  put 
upon  it.  Indeed  the  frequent  expression  "and 
God  said — let  be"  seems  to  require  evolution, 
for  it  implies  that  God  did  not  create  immedi- 
ately, but  through  co-operating  causes;  that  at 
the  beginning  as  now,  many  influences  conspired 
to  produce  the  results.  There  is  the  evolution 
of  Lamarck  which  is  materialistic;  that  of  Dar- 
win which  is  agnostic,  and  that  of  McCosh,  Le 
Conte,  Wright  and  many  other  christian  thinkers, 
which  is  theistic.  If  evolution  is  true,  it  must 
prevail,  but  still  our  old  Book  cannot  suffer;  it 
will  but  shine  out  with  new  and  better  meaning, 
and  its  divine  inspiration  will  be  more  firmly 
established  than  before.  Evolution  itself  has 
not  yet  been  completely  evolved;  the  final  word 
has  not  been  said  in  its  defense,  indeed  hardly 
more  than  its  first  word.  Until  it  has  been 
completely  wrought  out,  or  completely  over- 
thrown, believers  in  the  Bible  can  wait  with 
perfect   calmness,    indifferent   which   side    shall 


METHOD  OF  CREATION  215 

be  victorious,  for  only  the  true  can  survive, 
and  the  true  is  in  perfect  agreement  with  Reve- 
lation. 


CHAPTER  XL 

ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN. 

How  long  has  the  human  race  existed  on  the 
earth?  Upon  this  answer,  too,  there  has  been 
supposed  to  be  an  irreconcilable  conflict  between 
Revelation  and  Science.  Man  has  lived  5509 
years  before  Christ  according  to  the  Byzantine 
era;  5  199  years  according  to  Eusebius  and  Bede; 
4004  years  according  to  Archbishop  Ussher;  3984 
according  to  Kepler.  On  the  contrary,  the 
uniformitarian  school  of  geologists,  under  the 
lead  of  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  dated  the  origin  of 
life  upon  the  globe  back  to  a  period  of  hve 
hundred  million  of  years,  though  the  last,  or 
human  period,  would  of  course  be  far  less.  In 
his  first  edition  of  the  "Origin  of  species, "Darwin 
estimates  the  time  for  certain  erosions  to  have 
taken  place  as  jo6,662,400  years,  and  this  he 
regards  as  "a  mere  trifle"  which  can  be  allowed 
for  establishing  his  theory  of  the  origin  of  species 
through  natural  selection.  How  much  of  these 
vast  periods  would   be   assigned   to   the    human 

216 


ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN  217 

period,  we  do  not  know,  but  very  much  more 
than  that  assigned  by  those  who  deduce  their 
estimates  from  Scripture.  In  his  "Antiquity 
of  Man,"  Lyell  estimates  the  human  period  at  no 
less  than  224,000  years,  and  adds  "the  advent 
of  man  in  Europe  would  be  sufficiently  remote 
to  cause  the  historical  period  to  appear  quite 
insignificant  in  duration,  when  compared  to  the 
antiquity  of  the  human  race."  So  that  there 
would  certainly  be  a  wide  difference  between 
the  estimates  of  Biblical  and  scientific  chronol- 
ogists,  and  here  we  should  have  an  irreconcilable 
conflict  if  both  parties  read  their  texts  correctly. 
But  again,  as  alvva3S,  such  a  conflict  is  caused 
by  misreading  the  Bible  on  the  one  side,  and 
Geology  on  the  other.  Astronomy  has  now 
taken  up  the  question,  and  shown  the  estimates 
of  the  earlier  geologists  to  be  greatly  in  error, 
for  Sir.  Wm.  Thompson,  and  Prof.  Tait  of  Eng- 
land, and  Prof  Newcombe  of  Washington  Naval 
Observatory,  have  demonstrated  that  the  radia- 
tion of  heat  from  the  sun  is  diminishing  at  such 
a  rate,  that  ten  or  twelve  millions  of  years  ago, 
it  must  have  been  so  hot  upon  the  earth's  sur- 
face as  to  vaporize  all  the  water,  and  thus  render 
the  beginning  of  geological  life  impossible  until 
a  much  later  period.      Mr.    Wallace,    estimating 


IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


the  time  required  for  the  deposition  of  the  strati- 
fied rocks,  that  are  open  to  inspection  on  the 
surface  of  the  globe,  finds  that  twenty-eight 
million  years  are  all  the  time  required  for  the 
formation  of  the  whole  geological  strata,  and  of 
course  the  beginning  of  life,  must  have  been  far 
within  that  period.  Mr.  Prestwich  and  others, 
bring  all  the  phenomena  of  the  Glacial  period 
within  the  limits  of  thirty  or  forty  thousand 
years,  but  the  human  era  did  not  begin  until 
near  the  close  of  the  Ice  Age.  These  general 
conclusions  of  later  science,  have  thus  very  much 
restricted  the  extravagant  claims  of  those  who 
based  their  estimates  on  the  insufficient  data  of 
earlier  geology.  In  this  way,  science  is  herself 
lessening  the  gap  which  was  supposed  at  first  to 
exist  between  its  conclusions,  and  those  based 
on  the  records  of  Genesis. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  deeper  study  of  scripture 
has  shown,  that  the  choronology  which  was  based 
upon  the  supposition,  that  the  genealogies  of  the 
fifth  and  eleventh  chapters  of  Genesis  were  suc- 
cessive, is  built  upon  sand.  The  problem  seemed 
very  simple;  here  are  two  tables  of  genealogy, 
one  extending  from  Adam  to  Noah,  the  other 
from  Shem.  the  son  of  Noah,  down  to  Abraham. 
They  each  contain  ten  generations,  in  which,  is 


ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN  219 


given  in  the  case  of  each  individual  the  age  when 
his  son  was  born,  and  how  long  he  lived  after- 
ward. Now  all  that  needs  to  be  done  seems  to 
be,  to  add  these  amounts  together,  and  we  shall 
have  a  scripture  chronology,  from  Adam  to  Abra- 
ham, at  which  period  authentic  history  dawns, 
when' we  can  arrive  at  chronology  from  other 
sources.  These  results  would  be  perfectly  satis- 
factory, if  we  were  sure  that  the  Bible  intended 
to  teach  the  science  of  chronology,  while  we 
agreed  at  the  outset  that  its  purpose  was  not  to 
teach  science  at  all. 

In  an  elaborate  article  in  Bibliotheca  Sacra  for 
April  1890,  Prof.  Green  of  Princeton  Theologial 
Seminary  says — "There  is  an  element  of  uncer- 
tainty in  a  computation  of  time  which  rests  upon 
genealogies,  as  the  sacred  chronology  so  large- 
ly does.  Who  is  to  certify  to  us,  that  the 
ante-diluvian  and  ante-Abrahamic  genealogies 
have  not  been  condensed  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  have  the  post-Abrahamic?  Our  cur- 
rent chronology  is  based  upon  the  prima  facie 
impression  of  these  genealogies.  But  if  the 
recently  discovered  indications  of  the  antiquity 
of  man  shall,  when  carefully  inspected  and  thor- 
oughly weighed,  demonstrate  all  that  any  have 
imagined  they  might    demonstrate,  what   then.? 


220  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

They  will  simply  show  that  the  popular  chronol- 
ogy is  based  upon  a  wrong  interpretation,  and 
that  a  select  and  partial  register  of  ante-Abra- 
hamic  names,  has  been  mistaken  for  a  complete 
one."  Prof.  Green  then  shows  that  these 
chapters  of  Genesis  were  not  intended  to  be 
used,  and  cannot  be  used  for  the  construction 
of  a  chronology.  Bible  genealogies  are  fre- 
quently abreviated  by  the  omission  of  unim- 
portant names;  abridgement  is  the  rule  and  not 
the  exception.  The  intention  seems  to  be,  not 
so  much  to  give  a  complete  register,  but  rather 
the  line  of  descent,  by  mentioning  a  few  princi- 
pal names,  as  in  Matt.  i;i  the  whole  genealogy 
of  Christ  is  summed  up  in  two  steps,  "the  gen- 
eration of  Jesus  Christ,  the  son  of  David,  the 
son  of  Abraham."  But  Christ  was  not  the  im- 
mediate son  of  David,  nor  was  David  the  imme- 
diate son  of  Abraham.  From  verse  2  follows  a 
more  lengthy  line  of  descent  from  Abraham 
down,  in  which  we  know  that  several  names 
have  also  been  omitted;  they  seem  to  have 
served  as  way- marks  to  indicate  the  road  of  de- 
scent, and  not  all  the  steps  in  it. 

In  I  Chron.  26; 24  we  read,  in  a  list  of  ap- 
pointments made  by  King  David,  that  "Shebuel, 
the  son  of  Ghershom,  the  son  of  Moses  was  ruler 


ANTIQUITY  OF  MAhl  221 


of  the  treasures;"  here  the  genealogy  of  five 
hundred  years  is  reduced  to  two  names.  The 
genealogy  of  Ezra  is  given  in  the  book  which 
bears  his  name;  but  in  another  passage,  in 
which  the  same  line  of  descent  is  given,  it  has 
been  abridged  by  the  omission  of  six  consecutive 
names.  In  Ezra  8;  1,2  we  read — "These  are 
now  the  chief  of  their  fathers,  and  this  is  the 
genealogy  of  them  that  went  up  with  me  from 
Babylon  in  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  the  king. 
Of  the  sons  of  Phineas-Gershom ;  of  the  sons 
of  Ithamar-Daniel;  of  the  sons  of  David-Hut- 
tush."  If  no  abridgement  of  the  genealogy  be 
allowed,  we  should  have  a  great-grand  son,  and 
a  grand  son  of  Aaron,  and  a  son  of  David  coming 
up  with  Ezra  from  Babylon,  an  event  which 
took  place  at  least  nine  hundred  years  after  the 
birth  of  the  first  two,  and  five  hundred  years 
after  the  last  mentioned.  The  line  of  descent 
of  Gershom,  Daniel  and  Hattush  could  only 
have  been  intended,  and  not  their  complete 
genealogy.  Many  other  instances  might  be  given 
to  show  that  there  is  great  abridgement  in  the 
genealogical  lists,  by  the  omission  of  unim- 
portant names,  because  space  would  not  permit 
of  a  full  register,  which  was  kept  in  another 
place.   The  idea  of  the  Hebrew  word,  translated 


IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


— son,  would  be  better  expressed  to  us  by  being 
translated — descendant,  as  in  Matt.  i;i  "Jesus 
Christ,  the  descendant  of  David,  the  descendant 
of  Abraham," 

But  to  make  the  period  of  time  from  the  crea- 
tion of  man  to  the  birth  of  Christ,  just  4004 
years,  it  is  necessary  to  suppose  that  Gen.  5  and 
1 1  contain  full  registers  of  all  the  generations 
that  intervened.  In  each  case  there  are  only 
ten  names  given,  and  that  fact  alone  would  lead 
us  to  suspect  that  the  author  did  not  mean  to 
give  a  full  register,  for  it  is  quite  improbable  that 
there  were  exactly  the  same  number  of  genera- 
tions between  the  creation  and  the  Flood,  as  were 
between  the  Flood  and  Abraham.  It  is  much 
more  likely  that  the  author  selected  ten  names 
of  representative  men,  simply  to  indicate  the  line 
from  Adam  to  Noah,  and  from  Shem  to  Abra- 
ham. The  analogy  of  Scripture  is  against  the 
assumption  that  here  a  complete  register  is 
given;  the  series  seems  to  afford  us  a  conspectus 
of  individual  lives.  They  exhibit,  in  these 
selected  examples,  the  term  of  human  life  in 
those  two  periods — what  it  was  before  the 
Flood,  and  how  it  narrowed  down  after.  But 
to  do  this,  a  continuous  genealogy  was  not  nec- 
essary,   but    only    a   number   of  specimens,  the 


yiNTIQUlTY  OF  MAN  223 

same  in  both  periods,  with  the  appropriate  num- 
bers attached.  But  to  base  a  chronology  upon 
these  specimen  Hsts  of  ten  each,  and  learn  there- 
from how  long  Adam  lived  before  the  Flood, 
and  how  long  Abraham  lived  after,  would  use 
the  record  in  a  way  that  it  was  not  intended  to 
be  used,  and  would  certainly  bring  us  in  error. 
And  then,  if  we  insist  that  this  chronology  is 
based  upon  Scripture,  so  that  the  Bible  becomes 
responsible  for  it,  we  bring  on  another  conflict, 
when  it  is  proved  from  scientific  data,  that  man 
did  live  longer  than  4004  years  before  Christ. 
Dr.  Green  concludes  "that  the  Scriptures  furnish 
no  data  for  a  chronological  computation  prior  to 
the  life  of  Abraham,  and  the  Mosaic  records  do 
not  fix,  and  were  not  intended  to  fix  the  precise 
date  either  of  the  Flood  or  of  the  creation  of 
the  world." 

So  that  from  the  Scripture  side,  we  also 
approach  the  position  of  science,  and  lessen 
the  gap  v/hich  seemed  at  first  to  be  fixed 
between  the  two.  So  far  as  the  Bible  is  con- 
cerned, it  neither  contradicts  nor  affirms  any 
reasonable  age  of  man  upon  the  earth. 

Historical  evidence  requires  a  longer  period 
for  man,  than  that  usually  assigned  in  the  gen- 
erally accepted  chronology.     The  Egyptologists 


224  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


Mariette  and  Brugsch  find  high  civilization  on 
the  banks  of  the  Nile  seven  thousand  years  ago; 
they  would  make  the  civilization  of  Assyria  on 
the  Euphrates  as  old.  Considering  the  length 
of  time  for  the  languages  of  these  and  other 
peoples  then  living,  to  have  differentiated  so 
much  as  to  make  them  totally  distinct  tongues, 
though  derived  from  the  same  stock,  a  conser- 
vative estimate  would  require  perhaps  three 
thousand  years  more,  if  we  believe  in  the  unity 
of  the  race. 

We  find  language  is  still  changing,  so  that 
the  Romanse  languages  of  Southern  Europe, 
Italian,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  though  derived 
from  the  same  stock,  are  wholly  different 
now.  It  requires  a  certain  time  for  language 
to  change  so  completely  as  to  drift  entirely 
away  from  another,  which  has  come  from  the 
same  source.  Here  are  the  Assyrian  and  Egyp- 
tian tongues,  so  completely  changed  from  each 
other  seven  thousand  years  ago,  yet  both  came 
from  the  original  stock;  a  large  allowance  must 
therefore  be  allowed  for  this  change  to  have 
taken  place.  Ten  thousand  years  for  the  age  of 
man  on  the  earth  would  not  be  too  great  to 
satisfy  historical  demands. 

But  we  have  more  exact  time  measures  of  the 


ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN  225 


age  of  man  on  earth  in  geology.  The  earliest 
evidence  of  man  is  found  at  the  close  of  the 
Glacial  Period,  in  the  Post  Tertiary.  It  was 
not  very  long  ago,  as  geology  counts  time,  that 
a  large  portion  of  North  America  and  of  Europe 
were  covered  by  an  ice  sheet,  like  that  which 
still  covers  the  interior  of  Greenland.  As  Robin- 
son Crusoe,  knew  by  the  footprints,  that  there 
was  another  human  being  beside  himself  on  the 
sand,  so  geologists  can  follow  the  course  of  the 
glaciers,  by  the  abundant  prints  which  they  have 
left  in  the  moraines  of  debris,  in  the  isolated 
boulders  that  have  been  carried  by  the  ice  far 
from  the  place  where  such  rocks  alone  appear  on 
the  surface,  in  grooves  ploughed  by  the  moving 
ice,  and  the  parallel  scratches  which  the  advanc- 
ing mass  has  written  on  the  stones.  From  these 
and  other  evidences  of  glacial  work,  we  know 
that  four  million  square  miles  in  this  country, 
and  two  millions  in  Europe  have  been  covered 
by  an  ice  sheet  at  least  a  mile  in  thickness. 

The  southern  boundary  of  the  glaciated  area 
ran  across  our  continent  from  the  eastern  end  of 
Long  Island,  through  New  jersey  a  little  north 
of  Trenton,  thence  north  westerly  to  a  point 
near  Buffalo,  thence  south  west  through  the 
Ohio   valley  to    Cincinnati,    throwing    a    great 


226  75  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC 


tongue  down  the  Mississippi  far  into  Louisiana, 
and  from  Cairo  north  westerly  through  middle 
Dakota  and  Montana,  and  thence  to  the  Pacific 
coast. 

Vast  quantities  of  water  poured  forth  from 
this  melting  ice,  and  as  the  mass  began  to  re- 
treat under  the  influence  of  a  rising  temperature, 
the  water  often  dug  out  new  channels,  when  the 
old  river  beds  had  been  filled  in  ;  or  finding  itself 
dammed  up,  it  made  new  lakes,  and  pouring 
forth  in  great  freshets,  it  carried  vast  amounts 
of  sand  and  gravel  which  it  deposited  in  embank- 
ments or  spread  over  new  areas. 

The  first  evidence  of  the  existence  of  man  on 
the  earth  is  in  connection  with  the  retreat  of  this 
ice  sheet;  human  remains  and  stone  implements 
are  first  found  buried  beneath  these  glacial  de- 
posits of  earth  and  gravel.  The  first  discovery 
of  human  relics  clearly  connected  with  glacial 
desposits  in  America  and  of  the  same  age  with 
them,  was  not  until  1875;  up  to  that  time  the 
age  of  man  could  be  connected  with  the  Glacial 
Period,  only  by  the  discovered  fossils  of  animals 
which  were  known  to  be  contemporaneous  with 
him.  So  that  the  very  earliest  time  when  we 
can  know  positively  that  man  existed,  was  not 
earlier  than  the  close    of   the    Ice-age.      If  now, 


ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN  227 


we  can  determine  when  these  glacial  deposits 
were  made,  we  shall  have  some  definite  data 
by  which  to  estimate  the  length  of  the  human 
period. 

We  have  such  self-registering  chronometers  in 
some  of  the  rivers  which  are  known  to  have 
begun  since  the  ice  disappeared.  It  will  be 
noted  that  the  water-falls  of  this  continent  are 
north  of  the  southern  boundary  of  the  Ice  sheet, 
and  the  reason  is  very  plain ;  those  rivers  which 
were  pre-glacial  have  had  time  sufficient  to  wear 
away  their  channels  down  to  the  level,  and  any 
falls  which  might  formerly  have  existed,  have 
long  since  been  eroded,  while  post-glacial 
streams  have  not  yet  had  the  time  to  finish  their 
work.  Many  of  the  lakes,  which  dot  the  glaci- 
ated area,  are  also  due  to  the  fact  that  their 
outlets  have  not  had  time  enough  to  lower  their 
beds,  sufficiently  to  drain  off  the  water.  Lake 
Erie  is  one  of  those  post  glacial  lakes,  formed 
by  the  damming  up  of  the  river  which  formerly 
ran  through  a  channel  at  its  bottom,  and  which 
found  its  outlet  through  the  lower  part  of  the 
valley  of  Grand  River  in  Canada,  and  entered 
Lake  Ontario  at  its  western  extremity.  Lake 
Michigan  in  pre-glacial  times  had  its  outlet  to  the 
south  and  emptied  into  the  Mississippi. 


228  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


The  old  outlet  of  Erie  river  becoming  closed 
by  the  debris  deposited  by  the  ice  sheet  on  its 
recession,  the  water  found  itself  dammed  up, 
and  rose  to  form  the  present  Lake  Erie,  which 
then  had  to  find  a  new  outlet  that  finally  be- 
came the  Niagara  river,  which  is  wholly  a  post- 
glacial stream.  All  who  have  visited  Niagara, 
will  remember  that  the  water,  after  leaping  over 
the  falls,  rushes  through  a  deep  gorge,  that  has 
been  cut  through  solid  rock,  until  it  reaches 
Lewiston,  about  eight  miles  below.  This  rock 
gorge  of  the  Niagara,  therefore  is  an  accurate 
chronometer  by  which  to  measure  the  time  that 
has  elapsed  since  the  retreat  of  the  ice,  because 
it  has  been  entirely  cut  by  the  action  of  the 
water,  since  that  time.  All  that  is  necessary, 
is  to  ascertain  the  rate  of  recession  of  the  falls, 
the  distance  from  Lewiston  to  its  present  posi- 
tion, and  divide  the  latter  by  the  former,  when 
the  quotient  will  give  us  the  length  of  time  that 
this  post-glacial  stream  has  continued  to  flow. 
We  find  that  the  falls  are  slowly  wearing  back- 
ward, and  when  Sir  Charles  Lyell  visited  Niagara 
with  State  Geologist  Hall  in  1841,  they  estimated 
that  the  rate  of  recession  could  not  be  greater 
than  one  foot  a  year,  which  would  make  the  time 
required  about  thirty-five  thousand  years.    Yet 


ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN  229 

Lyell  thought  this  rate  of  recession  was  probably 
three  times  too  large,  so  that  he  favored  extending 
the  time  to  one  hundred  thousand  years.  Before 
this,  the  eminent  French  geologist  Desor,  had 
estimated  that  the  recession  could  not  have  been 
more  than  a  foot  a  century,  which  would  throw 
the  beginning  of  the  gorge  back  more  than  three 
million  years.  But  these  were  only  guesses  of 
eminent  men,  that  were  not  based  on  well  ascer- 
tained facts.  Soon  after.  Prof.  Hall  had  a  trig- 
onometrical survey  made  of  the  falls;  since  then, 
three  other  surveys  have  been  made,  from  which 
it  is  found  that  the  rate  of  recession  has  been 
about  two  and  a  half  feet  per  year  for  the  last 
forty-five  years.  But  in  the  central  parts  of  the 
curve,  where  the  water  is  deepest,  the  Horseshoe 
Fall  has  retreated  at  the  rate  of  more  than 
twenty  feet  per  year,  during  the  last  eleven 
years.  If  now,  we  suppose  that  the  falls  have 
been  worn  backward  at  a  uniform  rate  since  the 
Niagara  river  first  began  to  flow,  the  whole 
period  cannot  be  more  than  seven  thousand 
years.  But  there  are  evidences  to  show  that 
the  waters  of  Lake  Erie  did  not  immediately 
begin  their  work  of  cutting  a  channel  through 
the  Niagara,  so  that  a  longer  period  must  be 
allowed  since  the  foot  of  the    ice    sheet    melted 


330  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

away  from  that  region.  Prof.  Wright  estimates 
that  three  thousand  years  more,  will  fully  cover 
all  the  conditions,  so  that  the  close  of  the  glacial 
period  cannot  be  more  distant  than  about  ten 
thousand  years. 

A  second  noteworthy  glacial  chronometer  is 
found  in  the  gorge  of  the  Mississippi  River,  ex- 
tending from  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  at  Min- 
neapolis, to  its  jimction  with  the  pre-glacial 
trough  of  the  old  Mississippi,  at  Fort  Snelling, 
a  distance  of  about  seven  miles.  The  known 
rate  of  recession  of  the  falls,  would  give  the  total 
length  of  time  required  for  the  formation  of  the 
gorge,  of  a  little  less  than  eight  thousand  years, 
or  about  the  same  as  that  required  for  the  for- 
mation of  the  Niagara  gorge.  The  same  impres- 
sion of  recent  age  is  made  by  examination  of  the 
outlets  of  almost  any  of  the  lakes  which  stud 
the  glaciated  area;  the  time  during  which  this 
process  of  lowering  the  outlets  has  been  going 
on,  cannot  have  been  many  thousand  years. 
The  same  impression  is  also  made  by  the  study 
of  the  vallies  that  have  been  dug  out  by  post- 
glacial streams.  The  streams  constantly  carry 
away  the  earth  from  their  banks  and  bottoms 
and  tend  to  enlarge  their  troughs.  If  we  meas- 
ure the  cubical  contents  of  these  eroded  troughs, 


ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN  231 

and  divide  the  amount  by  the  average  amount 
of  transported  sediment  which  they  carry  every 
year  to  the  sea,  we  shall  have  again  nearly  the 
same  results  obtained  from  the  study  of  the 
recession  of  post-glacial  water-falls.  Calcula- 
tions based  upon  the  amount  of  sediment  de- 
posited since  the  retreat  of  the  ice-sheet  point  to 
a  like  moderate  conclusion. 

From  these  and  similar  investigations, 
that  have  been  carried  on  since  geology  has 
been  able  to  ascertain  rigid  facts,  upon 
which  to  base  its  estimates,  science  has  very 
m  ich  modified  its  conclusions,  which  in  for- 
mer years  it  had  so  hastily  made,  especially 
under  the  lead  of  men,  who  would  very  much 
like  to  bring  the  Bible  into  discredit.  For 
while,  we  have  found  that  estimates  of  time 
based  upon  genealogical  lists,  which  it  is  clearly 
seen  could  not  have  been  meant  to  be  complete, 
must  be  incorrect,  yet  the  study  of  the  Bible 
certainly  gives  the  impression  that  the  human 
period  upon  the  earth  has  not  been  long.  While 
the  extension  of  the  time  to  ten  or  even  twelve 
thousand  years,  if  science  should  require  so 
much,  would  spoil  the  fancies  of  many  theorists, 
who  like  to  build  airy  castles  out  of  the  Bible, 
yet  such  an  amount   of  time   would   not    at   all 


232  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 


conflict  with  anything  that  the  Bible  itself  has 
to  say,  for  the  reason  that  it  says  simply  nothing 
at  all.  The  ten  selected  names  of  men  who 
lived  before  the  Flood,  which  seem  to  have  been 
given  to  show  the  length  of  human  life  then, 
and  the  ten  selected  from  those  who  lived  after, 
in  whose  time  human  life  had  greatly  narrowed 
— these  would  not  prohibit  our  supposing  ten 
times  ten  generations  in  both  periods,  if  it  were 
necessary,  so  that  there  certainly  cannot  be 
made  a  conflict  between  Revelation  and  Science 
on  the  length  of  the  human  period,  because 
Revelation  declines  to  say  anything,  but  leaves 
this  to  her  sister  and  interpreter  to  determine, 
while  she  herself  hastens  to  speak  of  more  im- 
portant things  of  which  science  can  tell  us 
nothing. 

Again  the  two  have  approached  each  other. 
The  wide  chasm  which  seemed  to  yavv'n  between 
them  has  entirely  disappeared,  because  scientists 
now  acknowledge  that  they  mis-read  nature  in 
making  the  human  period  too  great;  and  Bible 
students  acknowledge  that  they  mis-read  the 
inspired  record  when  they  made  the  human 
period  too  small.  If  we  assign  from  seven  to 
ten  thousand  years  to  the  human  period  both 
revelation  and  science  will  not  withhold  their 
consent. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

CONCLUSION 

"The  word  of  the  Lord  is  tried,"  says  the 
Psalmist;  through  the  centuries  it  has  been 
tested, so  that  it  comes  into  our  hands  with  an 
authentication  which  it  did  not  bring  to  the  gen- 
erations before  us.  There  are  four  great  and 
rigorous  tests  to  which  it  has  been  subjected, 
out  of  which  it  has  come  with  a  vast  increase  of 
authority.  The  first  test  which  the  Bible  has 
successfully  passed  is — time.  Nothing  but  truth 
lasts;  everything  materiable  is  perishable.  "The 
everlasting  mountains"  is  only  a  figure  of  speech, 
for  geology  shows  that  the  mountains  change 
and  pass  away.  But  of  all  things,  the  most 
perishable  are  the  creation  of  men;  literature  is 
ephemeral  and  lasts  but  for  a  day.  Of  the  three 
millions  of  volumes  in  the  library  of  Paris,  only 
a  few  thousand  are  what  may  be  said  to  be  alive, 
while  the  vast  numbers  are  buried  in  the  dust 
of  oblivion,  and  are  mouldy  with   neglect.      But 

contrary    to   the    universal    law,  time     has    but 

233 


231  /5  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

polished  the  Bible  as  the  ceaseless  waves  polish 
the  pebbles,  and  it  is  to-day  brighter  and  more 
resplendent  than  it  has  been  in  all  the  thirty- 
five  centuries  of  its  existence.  It  has  never  been 
so  universally  studied,  never  so  widely  circulated, 
and  never  so  generally  accepted  as  now.  Time 
has  tested  it  and  proved  it  true. 

The  second  great  test  by  which  the  Bible  has 
been  tried  is — experience.  "Are  these  things 
so?"  men  ask.  The  answer  is — "Come  and  see." 
"O,  taste  and  see;  "Handle  me  and  see!"  Like 
a  ready  reference  volume  of  medical  practice  for 
home  use,  the  Bible  makes  certain  prescriptions 
for  the  ills  of  human  life,  the  correctness  of  which 
can  be  proved  only  by  experience.  It  promises 
relief  from  the  sense  of  guilt  and  deliverance 
from  the  power  of  sin;  it  offers  perfect  peace  and 
fullness  of  joy;  it  professes  to  have  a  secret  by 
which  life  can  be  lived  under  unfavorable  condi- 
tions, and  yet  can  be  serene  and  happy ;  it  claims 
to  be  able  to  tell  us  how  perfect  mastery  may 
be  obtained  over  self,  victory  over  temptation, 
and  power  over  the  world;  it  furnishes  an  equip- 
ment for  service,  so  that  one  who  tried  it,  ex- 
claimed—"I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ 
which  strengtheneth  me;"  it  professes  to  open 
a  means  of    communication    between    God    and 


CONCLUSION  235 


man  by  prayer,  so  that  our  requests  may  be 
known  unto  Him,  and  direct  answers  shall  come 
to  us;  it  tells  of  divine  help  for  human  infirmi- 
ties by  an  indwelling  Spirit,  so  that  a  new  life 
shall  result,  and  divine  fruits  shall  be  produced; 
it  promises  that  all  things  shall  be  so  directed 
that  individual  sanctification  shall  follow,  and 
men  shall  be  more  and  more  delivered  from  the 
evil,  and  made  meet  for  the  inheritance  of  the 
saints  in  light.  It  promises  much  more  than 
this,  but  all  of  these  are  practical  and  can  be 
experienced  in  this  life ;  these  are  as  much  within 
the  range  of  experiment  as  anything  material 
and  visible.  Multitudes  of  men  have  accepted 
the  Bible's  challenge  to  "taste  and  see;"  they 
have  complied  with  the  necessary  conditions, 
and  their  universal  testimony  is  that  in  all  these 
respects,  it  is  true. 

But  just  here,  men  who  are  not  themselves 
willing  to  comply  with  the  prescribed  conditions, 
yet  complain  that  the  testimony  of  christians  is 
not  trustworthy,  because  that  testimony  does  not 
agree  with  their  own  experience:  they  have  not 
themselves  found  it  so.  But  just  as  well  might 
laymen  refuse  the  testimony  of  a  chemical  expert, 
who  declares  that  water  is  composed  of  two  parts 
of  hydrogen  and  one  part   of   oxygen.      Ah,  but 


236  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC? 

argues  the  objector,  hydrogen  and  oxygen  are 
gases,  whereas  water  is  not  a  gas  but  a  fluid; 
your  testimony  contradicts  my  experience.  The 
answer  is — your  experience  has  not  been  under 
proper  conditions. 

On  all  other  points  which  are  to  be  established 
by  testimony,  we  rely  most  upon  the  testimony 
of  experts.  If  the  subject  be  the  effect  of 
medicine,  we  ask  for  the  testimony  oti  medical 
experts;  if  it  be  electrical,  we  require  the  testi- 
mony of  electrical  experts.  Why  then  should 
we  not  most  rely  upon  the  testimony  of  spiritual 
experts,  where  the  subject  is  a  spiritual  one.^ 
These  matters  of  which  the  Bible  mostly  speaks 
are  spiritual;  if  we  seek  for  proof  of  its  trust- 
worthiness, we  should  ask,  not  of  those  who  have 
had  no  experience  in  the  matter,  but  of  those 
whose  experience  has  been  so  large  that  they 
may  be  called  spiritual  experts.  There  are 
thousands  of  these  now  in  the  world;  millions 
have  already  passed  away,  who  have  put  the 
Bible  to  a  practical  test  on  these  spiritual  things, 
and  they  unanimously  testify  that  it  is  true. 

The  third  test  is  history.  Here  too  the  Bible 
is  more  and  more  vindicated;  as  ancient  history, 
archaeology,  ethnology,  the  study  of  comparative 
languages,   lay  their  results  before   us,  we    find 


CONCLUSION  237 


this  record  more  abundantly  confirmed.  Many 
a  statement  of  the  Bible  has  been  rejected  as 
untrue  by  historical  students  in  the  past,  and 
has  been  adduced  as  proof  of  its  error,  but  it 
has  now  been  completely  confirmed,  as  ancient 
monuments  have  been  exhumed,  rolls  and  tablets 
have  been  deciphered,  historic  places  have  been 
unearthed,  and  mummies  have  come  forth  from 
their  long  forgotten  tombs  with  scrolls  in  their 
withered  hands.  Numerous  and  wonderful 
instances  could  be  cited,  if  this  were  the  proper 
place.  The  vigorous  test  to  which  history  has 
subjected  the  Book,  has  only  the  more  clearly 
disclosed  its  truthfulness. 

And  the  fourth  test  is  that  produced  by 
modern  science.  This  is  a  search  light  which 
could  be  thrown  upon  the  "word  of  the  Lord" 
only  in  these  last  days.  Geology  is  a  compara- 
tively new  science;  biology  is  still  in  its  infancy; 
ethnology,  archaeology,  cosmogony,  comparative 
languages  and  religions  are  all  of  the  last  few 
decades.  But  as  this  electric  light  is  turned  on 
the  diirk  places  of  the  Bible,  these  do  not  prove 
to  be  caverns  whence  superstition  drew  myth 
and  fable,  but  they  are  found  to  be  deep  mines, 
where  are  found  rare  and  beautiful  jewels.  And 
as    the    sun    rises    higher    in    our    intellectual 


238  IS  MOSES  SCIENTIFIC.^ 


heavens,  the  fog  banks  are  rolled  back,  and  what 
seemed  frowning  and  hostile  battlements,  where 
revelation  was  entrenched  on  the  one  side  and 
science  on  the  other,  are  now  seen  to  be  parts 
of  the  same  great  mountain  mass  of  truth, 
touched  and  gilded  by  the  light  of  heaven.  The 
mercy  of  the  Bible  and  the  truth  of  science 
have  met  together;  they  have  looked  each  other 
in  the  face  and  found  that  they  were  daughters 
of  the  same  great  Father;  the  righteousness 
brought  in  the  hand  of  the  Bible,  and  the  peace 
brought  in  the  hand  of  science,  have  kissed  each 
other. 

No  longer  with  the  jealousy  and  petulance  of 
ignorance,  keeping  each  her  own  book  to  herself. 
Revelation  and  Science  now,  like  two  loving  and 
beautiful  sisters,  sit  down  together,  and  study 
their  books  together,  and  ask  each  other's  aid. 
Revelation  turns  over  the  leaves  of  the  Bible 
and  asks  Science  to  help  interpret  its  teachings 
to  men;  and  Science  turns  over  the  rocky  leaves 
of  Nature,  and  when  she  has  deciphered  the 
hieroglyphics  which  the  divine  finger  has  written 
upon  them,  she  is  surprised  and  rejoices,  when 
revelation  shows  that  they  are  but  pictured  illus- 
trations of  the  same  truths  contained  in  the 
written  word. 


CONCLUSION  239 


By  time,  by  experience,  by  history,  by  science, 
the  Word  of  the  Lord  has  been  tried,  and  the 
results  have  been  for  its  confirmation.  But  the 
work  is  not  yet  all  done.  There  remain  more 
difficulties  to  be  explained,  more  seeming  con- 
flicts to  be  harmonized.  If  we  shall  not  see  it 
all  accomplished  in  our  day,  we  will  not  with- 
hold our  faith.  So  much  has  been  done  already, 
that  we  cannot  but  expect  that  the  good  w^ork 
will  go  on;  more  light  will  break  forth  from  the 
written  word,  and  more  light  will  break  forth 
from  the  material  word  of  God.  But  all  light, 
from  whatever  source  is  one.  The  results  thus 
far  are  all  in  the  same  direction,  and  we  cannot 
but  believe  that  they  will  continue  in  that  same 
direction  for  all  future  time.  "Lord,  I  believe, 
help  Thou  mine  unbelief."  Upon  the  truth  of 
the  written  word  of  the  Lord,  we  are  willing  to 
build  our  hope  for  eternity,  and  we  "know  that 
we  shall  not  be  ashamed," 


THE    END. 


a  selection  from 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company'i 

catalogue. 


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11.    Animals  of  the  Bible. 

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mentary. Critical,  Practical,  Explanatory.  Four  volumns  in  neat 
box,  fine  cloth,  |S.oo;  half  bound,  f  lo.oo. 

A  new  edition,  containing  the  complete  unabridged  notes  in  clear  type  on  good  paper, 
in  four  handsome  12  mo.  volumes  of  about  1.000  pages  each,  with  copious  index,  numerouc 
illustrations  and  maps,  and  a  Bible  Dictionary  compiled  from  Dr.  Wm.  Smith's  standard 
work. 

Bishop  Vincent  of  Chautauqua  fame  says  :  ''  The  i'esi  cocdensed  commentary  on  the 
whole  Bible  is  Jamieson,  Fausset  &.  Brown." 

CRU  DEN'S  UNABRIDGED  CONCORDANCE  TO  THE 
HOLY  SCRIPTURES.  With  life  of  the  author.  864  pp.,  8vo., 
cloth  (net),  $1.00;  half  roan,  sprinkled  edges  (net),  2.00;  half  roan, 
full  gilt  edges  (net),  $2.50. 

SMITH'S  BIBLE  DICTIONARY,  comprising  its  Antiquities,  Biog- 
raphy, Geography  and  Natural  History,  with  numerous  maps  and  illus- 
trations. Edited  and  condensed  from  his  great  work  by  William 
Smith,  LL.  D.     776  pages,  Bvo,  many  illustrations,  cloth,  $1.50. 

THE  BIBLE  TEXT  CYCLOPEDIA.      A  complete  classification  of 
Scripture   Texts  in  the  form  of  an  alphabetical  list  of  subjects.      By 
Rev.  James  Inglis.     Large  8vo,  524  pages,  cloth,  f  1.75. 
The  plan  is  much  the  same  as  the  "  Bible  Text  Book  "  with  the  valuable  additiooiv. 

help  in  that  the  texts  referred  to  are  quoted  in  full.    Thus  the  student  is  saved  the  time  and 

labor  of  turning  to  numerous  passages,  which,  when  found,  may  nut  be  pertinent  to  the 

-iubject  he  has  in  hand. 

THE  TREASURY  OF  SCRIPTURE  KNOWLEDGE;  consist- 
ing of  500,000  scripture  references  and  parallel  passages,  with  numer- 
ous notes.     8vo,  778  pages,  cloth,  f  2.00. 

A  single  examination  of  this  remarkable  compilation  of  references  will  convince  the 
reader  of  the  fact  that  "  the  Bible  is  its  own  best  interpreter." 

THE  WORKS  OF  FLAVIUS  JOSEPHUS,  translated  by  William 
WiiiSTON,  A.  M.,  with  Life,  Portrait,  Notes  and  Index.  A  new  cheap 
edition  in  clear  type.     Large  8vo,  684  pages,  cloth,  $2.00. 

100.000  SYNONYMS  AND  ANTONYMS.  By  Rt.  Rev.  Samuel 
Fallows,  A.  M.,  I).  D.      512  pages,  cloth,  $1.00. 

A  complete  Dictionary  of  synonyms  and  -words  of  opposite  meanings,  with  an  appen- 
dix of  Briticisms,  Americanisms,  Colloquialisms,  Homonims,  Homophonous  words.  Foreign 
Phrases,  etc.    etc. 

_  "  This  is  one  of  the  best  books  of  its  kind  we  have  seen,  and  probably  there  is  nothing 
published  in  the  country  that  is  equal  to  it." — Y.  M.  C.  A.   Watchman. 


NEW  YORK. 


Fleming  H.  Revell  Company  =:  Chicago. 


WrifiDgsofRey.'P.  B.  MMi,  6.A. 

— :   *    ■ 

Mr,  Meyer  always  writes  to  edificatiori.— C.  H.  SPURGEON. 


-jj  0  S  e  p  I]  .     Beloved— Hated— Exalted.     Cloth,  ib  mo.,  $i.oo. 

Cj-~ 

In  the  present  volume  Mr.  Meyer  retells  with  skill  and  pathos  the 
old-world  story  of  the  Israelitish  youth  who  rose  through  pit  and  prison  to 
the  post  of  Premier  of  Egypt;  a  siory  of  undying  inteiest  and  worth,  not 
only  as  a  true  tale  of  Eastern  romance,  but  as  a  unique  example  of  the 
value  of  piety,  purity  of  life  and  fidelity  in  service. 

lOTH  THOUSAND. 

b  r  a  h  d  nt ;      or,  The  Obedience  of  Faith.     Cloth,  jb  mo.,  $i.oo. 

A  book  we  would  very  heartily  comm  nd  to  those  who  desire  to  make 
progress  in  Christian  life  and  experience;  each  will  find  it  helpful  and  sug. 
gestive,  sending  new  light  upon  many  a  well-known  narrative. — Christian 
Progress. 

The  contents  of  the  book  before  us  are  such  that  no  one  can  rise  from 
its  perusal  without  feeling  consciously  strengthened  in  God  and  inspired 
afresh  for  the  Godly  life. — Sundav-School  Chronicle. 

Really  a  very  beautiful  work,  which  will  be  read  with  delight  by 
many  a  fireside.  After  all,  this  home-like  treatment  of  Scripture  liiography, 
with  the  object  of  bringing  out  the  spiritual  lessons,  is  amongst  the  highest 
and  most  profitable  studies. —  The  Freeman. 

I3TH  THOUSAND. 

0  T  (I  C  I  •      A  Prince  with  God.     Cloth,  jb  mo.,  $1.00. 


Mr.  Meyer  has  great  descriptive  power.  He  can  tell  a  narrative 
well.  This  subject  in  his  hand  glows  with  life,  and  the  scenes  and  events  in 
the  history  of  his  hero  pass  vividly  before  you,  and  are  ever  being  used  to 
foi  ce  home  some  important  principle. — British  Messenger. 

With  a  keen  moral  insiglit,  and  a  deep  spiritual  sympathy,  he  de- 
acribes  the  piety  and  weakness  of  the  best  beloved  of  the  Patriarchs. 
—  Christian  Leader, 

Exceedingly  good,  not  only  spiritual,  but  also  thoughtful,  fresh,  sug- 
gestive and  thoroughly  practical. —  C.  H.  Spiirgeon,  in  Sword  and  Trowel, 

From  first  to  last  the  book  is  richly  suggestive  and  spiritually  ixwKx.- 
Im\.— Word  and  Work. 

I5TH    THOUSAND. 

^^ ,  1  i  I  CI  1) :      and  the  Secret  of  his  Pov/er,     Cloth,  ib  mo.,  $1 ,00. 


The  leading  object  of  this  volume  is  to  show  that  Elijah's  God  is  our 
God;  aiid  how  a  like  dependence  may  be  ours  if  our  dependence  is  in  the 
living  God.  It  is  encouraging  and  stimulating;  yet  full  of  solemn  warnings. 
Some  parts  are  grandly  written  and  of  thrilling  interest. — Footsteps  of 
J  ruth. 

Good,  exceedingly  good  1  Mr.  Meyer  is  a  great  gain  to  the  armies  01 
Evringelical  truth;  for  hia  tone,  spirit  and  aspirations  are  all  of  a  fine  Gospel 
$:)!'.. — Sword  and  Trowel. 

NEW  YORK  It  Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.  -    Chicago. 


WRITINGS  OF  REV,  F,   B.  MEYER,  B.  A. 


"% 


Xicb  bn  JFir^*"     Expositions  of  the  Fir^t  Epistle  of  Peter.   C/tfM 
-  '^  lb  mo,,  $i.oo. 

We  doubt  whether  any  work  has  appeared  since  the  time  of  Leighton, 
on  the  same  subject,  which  equals  the  one  before  us.  These  expositions  of 
one  of  the  richest  of  the  Epistles  are  brightly  and  beautiful] v  written,  and 
infused  by  a  lofty  and  evangelical  Christian  spirit — Primitive  Afethoaist. 


% 


2 1  ST  THOUSAND. 

l)e  tprcsmt  @cnscg  of  i\)Z  Blesacb  £ifc.    cioth,  32  mo. ,  50c. 

We  commend  the  book  as  one  that  cannot  fail  to  be  read  with  profit„ 
—Evangelical  Christeudotr . 

A  gem  and  brimful  of  spiritual  life — Methodist  New  Connexion 
Magazine. 


% 


20TH  THOUSAND, 

0t)titi5txan  Cioing.    cioth,  33  mo.,  see. 

Full  of  sweetness  and  light.     No  Christian  can  read  it  and    fail  to 

receive  stimulus  in  the  direction  whither  tlie  true-hearted  would  go. CVw- 

gregational  Magazine. 

Special  stress  is  made  in  this  little  volume  on  the  practical  side  of  tht 
Christian  life.  Thoughts  calculated  to  strengthen  and  inspire  in  the  per- 
formance of  every-day  duties,  are  put  in  clear  and  simple  form. —Advance. 

Tbey  prove  most  refreshing  reading;  and  for  the  culture  of  the  relig- 
ous  life  we  can  recommend  nothing  better.-  —^/a«a'ar^. 

IQTH  THOUSAND, 

he  Sheplierb  Msalm.     Meditations  on  the  23d  Psalm.      C/otA,  32 
'  '   ^  ' 21 mo.,  5QC. 

We  have  never  read  anything  so  charming  on  the  Twenty- third 
Psalm.  It  is  full  of  beauty  and  poetry.  Anything  that  this  gifted  and 
spiritual  author  writes  requires  no  recommendation,  as  he  is  well  known  to 
the  Chri>tian  public. — /rtsA    Congregational  Magazine. 

Mr.  Meyer  has  given  us  a  devotional  work  on  this  inspired  Psalm 
which  every  Christian  man  and  woman  should  not  only  read  but  cany  about 
in  his  pocket  in  order  to  gnatch  even  amid  the  busy  employment  of  life  an 
uplifting  and  elevating  thought.  This  little  book  is  worth  its  weight  ia 
gold. —  Central  Baptist. 

Envelope  Series  of  Booklets,  by  Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer. 

The  Chambers  of  the  King.      Words  of  Help  for  Christian  The  Lost  Chord  Found. 
With  Christ  in  Separation.  Girls.  Why  Sign  the  Pledge? 

Seven  Rules  (or  Daily  Living,  The  Filling  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Secret  of  Power. 
The  Secret  of  Victory  over  Sin.  The  Stewardship  of  Money.     Our  Bible  Reading. 
The  First  Step  into  the  Blessed  Whe^e  .Tm  I  Wrong?  The  Se  ret  of  (Juidance. 

Life.  Yountr  Man,  Don't  Drift!  Peace,  Perfect  Pea<cc. 

aoc,  per  dozen,  or  $1.50  per  100. 
CHOICE  EXTRACTS  from  writings  of  F.  B.  Meyer,  48  pages,  sc  per  copy:  350.  dozen. 

NSWYORK.     ::      Flemillg    H.    ReVCll    Co.     ::        CHICAGQ. 


Important  Missionary  Publications. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  JOHN  G.  PATON.  Missionary  to  the 
New  Hebrides.  Introductory  note  by  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 
2  vols.,  12mo.,  portrait  and  map,  in  neat  box,  |2.00  net. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  biographies  of  modern  times. 

"I  have  just  laid  down  the  most  robust  and  the  most  fascinating  piece  of  auto- 
biography tliat  I  have  met  with  in  many   a  day It  is  the  story  of  tlie 

wonderful  work  wrought  by  John  G.  Paton,  the  famous  missionary  to  tiie  New 
Hebrides;  he  was  made  of  the  same  stuff  with  Livingstone."— T.  L.  Cuylkr. 

"It  stands  with  sucli  books  as  those  Dr.  Livingstone  gave  the  world,  and 
shows  to  men  that  the  heroes  of  the  cross  are  not  merely  to  be  sought  in  past 
ages," — Christian  IntdUgencer. 

THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    KENNETH    MACKENZIE.      Medical 

Missionary  to  China;  with  the  story  of  the  First  Chinese  Hospital 

by  Mrs.   Eryson,  author -of  "Child  Life  iu  Chinese  Homes,"  etc. 

12mo.,  cloth,  400  pages,  price  $1.50  with  portrait  iu  photogravure. 

"The  story  of  a  singularly  beautiful  life,  sympathetically  and  ably  written. 

.    .    .    .     A  really  helpful,  elevating  book."— Lonrfoji  Tl/issionari/ C/troJu'de. 

"The  volume  records  much  that  is  fresh  and  interesting  bearing  on  Chinese 

customs  and   manners  as  seen  and  vividly  described  by   a  missionary  who  had 

ample  opportunities  of  studying  tbem  under    most  varied    circumstances  and 

conditions." — Scotsman. 

THE  GREATEST  WORK  IN  THE  WORLD.  The  Evangeliza- 
tion of  all  Peoples  iu  the  Present  Century.  By  Eev.  Arthur  T. 
Pierson,  D.D.     12rao.,  leatherette,  gilt  top,  35c. 

The  subject  itself  is  an  inspiration,  but  this  latest  production  of  Dr.  Pierson 
thrills  with  the  life  which  the  Master  Himself  has  imparted  to  it.  It  will  be  a 
v/elcome  addition  to  Missionary  literature. 

THE  CRISIS  OF  MISSIONS.  By  Rev,  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 
Cloth,  $1.25  ;  paper,  35c. 

"  We  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  this  book  is  the  most  purposeful,  earnest  and 
intelligent  review  of  the  mission  work  and  field  which  has  ever  been  given  to  the 
Church." — Christian  Statesman. 

MEDICAL  MISSIONS.  Their  Place  and  Power.  By  John  Lowe, 
F.  R.  C.  S.  E.,  Secretary  of  the  Edinburgh  Medical  Mission  Society. 
12mo.,  308  pages,  cloth,  |1.50. 

"This  book  contains  an  exhaustive  account  of  the  benefits  that  may,  and  in 
point  of  fact  do,  accrue  from  tlie  use  of  the  medical  art  as  a  Christian  agency.  Mr. 
Lowe  is  eminently  qualified  to  instruct  us  in  this  matter,  having  himself  been  so 
long  engaged  in  the  same  field." — Prom  Introduction  by  Sir  William,  Muir. 

ONCE  HINDU :  NOW  CHRISTIAN.  The  early  life  of  Baba 
Padmanji.  Translated  from  the  Marathi.  Edited  by  J.  Murray  Mit- 
chell, M.  A,,  LLD.     12mo.,  155  pages,  with  appendix.     Cloth,  75c. 

"  A  more  instructive  or  more  interesting  narrative  of  a  human  soul,  once  held 
firmly  in  the  grip  of  oriental  superstition,  idolatry  and  caste,  gradually  emerging 
into  the  light,  liberty  and  peace  of  a  regenerate  child  of  God,  does  not  often  come 
to  hand." — Missionary  Herald. 

AN  INTENSE  LIFE.  By  George  F.  Herrick.  A  sketch  of  the  life 
and  work  of  Rev.  Andrew  T  Prattt,  M.D.,  Missionary  of  the  A.  B. 
C.  F.  M.,  iu  Turkey,  1832-1372.     16mo.,  cloth,  50c 


NEW  YORK. : :  Flctiiing  H._ReDell  Company  : :  cHiCAGo. 


Important  Missionary  Publications 

{Continued.') 


EVERY-DAY  LIFE  IN  SOUTH  INDIA,  or,  the  Story  of  Coopoo- 
swamev.  An  Autobiography.  With  fine  engravii^gs  bv  E.  Whym- 
per.     12mo.,  cloth,  $100. 

THE  CHILDREN  OF  INDIA.        Written  for  children   by  one  of 

their  friends.     Illustrations  and  map.     Small  4to  ,  cloth,  |1,25. 

"These  are  gooil  books  for  tlie  Sunday-.Scliool  Library,  and  will  help  young 
people  in  missionary  societies  who  desire  to  have  an  intelligrept  idea  of  the  people 
in  India  whom  they  are  sending  their  money  and  their  missionaries  to  converi."  — 
Missionary  Herald. 

HINDUISM,  PAST  AND  PRESENT.  With  an  account  of  recent 
Hindu  reformers,  and  a  brief  comparison  between  Hinduism  and 
Christianity.  By  J.  Murray  Mitchell,  M.A.,  LLiD.  12mo.,  cloth, 
$1.60. 

"  A  praiseworthy  attempt  to  present  a  popular  view  of  a  vast  and  important 
ubject. " — Saturday  Review. 

GOSPEL  ETHNOLOGY.  With  illustrations.  By  S.  R.  Paterson, 
F.  G.  S.     12mo,  cloth.,  $1.00. 

"  The  first  attempt  to  treat  this  subject  from  a  thorough-gfiing  scientific  stand- 
point. A  very  powerful  argument  for  the  truth  of  Christianity.  ''—English  Church- 
man. 

"  A  book  to  refer  to  for  information  not  easily  to  be  o')tained  otherwise. — 
Church  Missionary  InleUigencer. 

NATIVE  LIFE  IN  SOUTH  INDIA.     Being  sketches  of  the  social 

and  religious  characteristics  of  the  Hindus.      By  the  Kcv.   Henry 

Rice.      With  many  illustrations  from  native  sketches.     12mo.,  cloth 

boards,  $1.00. 

"Those  who  have  heard  >Ir.  Rice's  missionary  addressed  Will  be  prepared  to 

hear  that  this  is  afascinating:  book." — Life  and  Work. 

CHRISTIAN  PROGRESS  IN  CHINA.  Gleaninjr?  ^som  the  writ- 
ings and  speaches  of  many  workeis.  By  Arnold  Foster,  B.A., 
London  Missionary,  Hankow.  With  map  of  China.  12iuo.,  cloth, 
$1.00. 

AMONG  THE  MONGOLS.     By  Rev.  James  Gilroour,  M.A.,  London 
Mission,    Peking.      Numerous    engravings    liom    photographs   and 
native  sketches.     12mo.,  gilt  edges,  cloth,  $1.00. 
'The  newness  and  value  of  the  book  consists  solely  in  Vs  Defof  ouality,  that 

when  you  have  read  it  you  know,  and  will  never  forget,  all  Mr.  CiiJiucir  kiiowa 

and  tells  of  how  Mongols  live." — Spectator. 

EVERY-DAY  LIFE  IN  CHINA,   or,  Scenes  .alon?  River  iwd  Road 
in  the  Celestial  Empire.     By  Edwin  J.  Dukes.     Illustratioue  from 
the  author's  sketches.     12mo.,  with  embellished  cover,  $2.00. 
That  China  is  a  mysterious  problem  to  all  who  interest  themselves  in  its  -^faira 
is  the  only  e.tcuse  for  offering  another  liook  on  the  .'^uhjcct. 


NEW  YORK.  ;;  Fleming  H.  Reucll  Company  ;:  cHici.«Q. 


Popular  Missionary  Biographies. 

i2mo,  i6o  pages.     Fully  illustrated;  cloth  extra,  75  cents  each 


S.ev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon, 

jrrites : 

"  Crowded  with  facts 
that  both  interest  and  in- 
spire, we  can  conceive  of 
no  better  plan  to  spread 
the  Missionary  spirit  than 
the  multiplying  of  such 
biographies;  and  we 
would  specially  commend 
this  series  to  those  who 
have  the  management  of 
libraries  and  selection  of 
prizes  in  our  Sunday 
Schools." 


From  The  Missionary 
H eta  Id ; 

"\Ve  commended  this 
series  in  our  last  issue, 
and  a  further  examina- 
tion leads  us  to  renew  our 
commendation,  and  to 
urge  the  placing  of  this 
series  of  missionary  books 
in  ail  our  Sabbath-school 
libraries. 

These  books  are  hand- 
somely printed  and  bound 
and  are  beautifully  illus- 
trated, and  we  are  confi- 
dent that  they  will  prove 
attractive  to  all  young 
people." 

SAMUEL  CROWTHER,   the  Slave  Boy  v/ho  became  Bishop  of 

the  Niger.     By  Jesse  Page,  author  of  "  Bishop  Patterson." 
THOMAS   J.  COMBER,  Missionary   Pioneer  to  the  Congo.      By 

Rev.  J.  B.  Myers,  Association  Secretary  Baptist  Missionary  Society. 
BISHOP  PATTESON,  the  Martyr  of  Melanesia.  By  Jesse  Page. 
GRIFFITH    JOHN,    Founder    of   the   Hankow  Mission,  CentraX 

China.    By  Wm.  Robson,  of  the  London  Missionary  Society. 
ROBERT   MORRISON,  the   Pioneer  of   Chinese   Missions.      By 

Wm.  J,  TowNSEND,  Sec,  Methodist  New  Connexion  Missionary  Soc'y. 

ROBERT  MOFFAT,  the  Missionary  Hero  of  Kuruman.    By  David 
J.  Dkane,  author  of  "  Martin  Luther,  the  Reformer,"  etc. 

WILLIAM    CAREY,  the   Shoemaker  who  became  a  Missionary. 

By  Rev.  J.  B.  Myers,  Association  Secretary  Baptist  Missionary  Society. 
JAMES    CHALMERS,    Missionary    and    Explorer  of   Rarotonga 

and  New  Guinea.  By  Wm.  Robson,  of  the  London  Missionary  Soc'y. 
MISSIONARY  LADIES  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.     By  Mrs.  E.  R. 

Pilman,  author  of  "  Heroines  of  the  Mission  Fields,"  etc. 
JAMES  CALVERT;  or.  From  Dark  to  Dawn  in  Fiji. 
JOHN  WILLIAMS,  the    Martyr   of    Erromanga.      By  Rev.  James 

J.  Ellis. 

UNIFORM    WITH   THE   ABOVE. 

JOHN  BRIGHT,  the  Man  of  the  People.     By  JesSe  Page,  author  of 

"  Bishop  Patteson,"  "  Samuel  Crowther,"  etc. 
HENRY  M,  STANLEY,  the  African  Explorer.   By  Arthur  Monte- 

FiORE,  F.R.G.S.      Brought  down  to  1889. 
DAVID  LIVINGSTON,  his  Labors  and  his  Legacy. 


CHICAGO 

148-1^0  Madison  Street. 


.  Flemiiig  H.  MbII  Co. 


NEW  YORK: 
112  Fifth  Ave.,  near  i6'.h. 


M»ni  /•r  a  Hat  0/  contents  of  entire  a«ri«t. 


A    L,IBRARY    or     CRITICAL^    I^BARNING. 


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LIUING    PAPERS 

ON   PRESENT   DAY  THEMES. 

A  SCRIES  OFTEN  VOLUMES    COVERING   A  WIDE   RANGE  OF  SUBJECTS  C^ 
CHRISTIAN   EVIDENCE,   DOCTRINE  AND   MORALS. 

We  wish  to  place  this  set  of  hooks  in  the  library  of  every  thoughtfvl 
minister. 

The  set  cannot  but  be  desired  as  soon  as  their  worth  is  known 

The  subjects  treated  are  the  leading  topics  of  the  day,  and  the  writers 
are  acknowledged  authorities  on  the  particular  themes  discussed. 

Note  the  remarkable  list  of  names  included  atnong  the  contributors. 

Pbinoipal  Caiens, 
Rev.  C.  a.  Row. 
W.  G.  Blaokie,  D.D. 


LL.D., 
Pekbendaey  Row,  M.A., 
Rkt.  Noah  Poeteb,  D.D., 
Canon  Rawlinson, 
H.  R.  Pattison,  F.G.S., 
Db.  Fbiedeich  Pfaff. 
Deam  of  Cantebbuey, 
Henet  Wage,  D.D., 
Ret.  W.  F.  Wilkinson,  M.A.. 
James  Leqge,  LL.D., 
Ret.  W.  G.  Elmslie,  M.A., 
Dean  of  Chestee, 
J.  MuBEAY  Mitchell,  LL.D.. 
F.  Godet,  D.D., 
Ettstaoe  p.  Condeb,  M.A.,  D.D., 


Ret.  James  Iveeaoh,  M.A., 

A.  H.  8AYCE,  M.A., 

Rev.  J.  Radfoed  Thomson,  M.A., 

Rev.  William  Aethuu, 

Sib  W.  Mttib, 

Rev.  a.  B.  Beuce,  D.D., 

ALEXANDEii  Maoalisteb,  M.A.,  M.D.. 

Rev.  G.  F.  Macleab  J).D.. 

Rev.  J.  Stoughton,  D.D., 

Rev.  R.  MoCheyne  Edgae,  M.A.. 

Rev.  John  C.^iens,  D.D., 

Sib  J.  WiLLi.\M  Dawson,  F.R.S., 

Rev.  W.  8.  Lewis,  M.A.. 

Rev.  John  Kelly, 

Rev.  M.  Kaufmann,  M.A., 

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